The majority of people in this animal-loving nation rejoiced when fur farming and hunting with animals were finally banned.

It is thus with dismay that I read the news about the Boxing Day hunts. Why do these hunts-people insist on a flagrant disregard to the rule of law? If they do not break the actual letter of the law, by sailing so close to the wind they undermine the spirit of it.

If the Conservative Party is elected at the next General Election then the ban on hunting with dogs will be repealed.

Controlling pests is one thing; making a sport out of it another.

Hunting was a cruel anachronism that a civilised society could no longer tolerate. To turn the clock back would be the worse kind of retrograde step.

Julian Ware-Lane
Lionel Road
Canvey