Melissa Kite accuses her opponents of stereotyping those who hunt (Leave us ‘toffs’ to hunt legally in peace, 23 December) and implies objections to hunting were always about class war by people “unacquainted with the natural world in all its rugged vitality”. May I just challenge that equally stereotyped view. I grew up on a farm. My father bred beef cattle, which, unlike the cruelly treated animals Ms Kite refers to, grazed out all summer and in winter were kept warm in barns where they were fed (for some reason at 6am) the hay and turnips produced, by backbreaking work, from our stony little holding.
When ready for sale, the cattle were taken to be quickly and humanely slaughtered and were used as food, sold locally. When a fox tried to break into the hen house, my father shot it. Nothing romantic here, and an acceptance of both life and death in its raw reality. But, equally, a respect for the animals and the environment which never involved the pursuit or killing of any creature for sport and excitement.
I do not care what background hunt participants come from, or how wealthy they are. I simply condemn their need to stimulate themselves by terrorising animals. Sorry, Ms Kite, please do not presume to know my reasons for opposing your “sport”. They are simply as stated, and your claims of class war are just a self-deluding way to dismiss arguments you cannot directly refute.
Jill Wallis
Aston Clinton, Buckinghamshire
• May I make one or two observations in response to Melissa Kite’s piece? Firstly, the law is entirely ignored round here, and hunters hunt foxes with impunity, untroubled by any attention from the police. It might as well be repealed for what use it is, which is none at all. Secondly, it is a little rich to read complaints of class war, when that is exactly what Ms Kite’s government has been gleefully and sadistically waging against the poor for the past few years. Since many of the hunters I have encountered have been loutishly ill-mannered, unpleasant and, dare I say, ostentatiously uncivilised, you could argue that they make a very fitting class enemy. Or do Ms Kite and her sort prefer their wars to be entirely one-sided?
Michael Rosenthal
Banbury, Oxfordshire
• In her plea for fox-hunting to be made legal once more, Melissa Kite omits the one telling argument for her case: that, given the need to cull foxes, hunting is the most humane way of doing so. The fox is either dead or alive, not (as can happen if shot) wounded and left to die slowly and painfully. She also skates over the other aspect: riding to hounds is great fun, but it is rather expensive. These days, I imagine, keeping a horse at livery would cost someone the best part of £10,000 a year, and then on top of that would be the hunt subscription.
Robert Nowell
New Barnet, Hertfordshire
• Melissa Kite is wrong to bring class into the hunting debate – it is simply about cruelty. The chasing of a fox by a pack of hounds until it is almost dying from exhaustion and then to be torn apart by the hounds is not sport. The fox, vermin or not, has no chance once cornered by a baying pack. If this is sport and the enjoyment is gained from riding across the countryside on horseback, then why not chase a runner leaving a scent trail. The scent does not need to be a fox, as the hounds will chase any scent they have been trained to. If this is a class issue and hunting a sport, then why was dog fighting, bear-baiting, etc banned? For the simple reason: they are cruel.
Ian Hickinbottom
Montgomery, Powys
• Melissa Kite is entirely welcome, if she so wishes, to get up early, dress smartly, climb aboard a good horse and hurtle over hedges – on Boxing Day or any other day of the year. It is entirely feasible for her to do all these things without pursuing, terrifying and killing a sentient being in the process.
Pam Lunn
Kenilworth, Warwickshire
• With over 35 years of wildlife and countryside management experience, I feel I am allowed to ask why the RSPB is acting with dogmatic inconsistency on hen harriers. If a species is limited in its range and achieves a predetermined density in some areas, it is logical to relocate some individuals to low-density areas of suitable habitat. The RSPB has gained great experience in doing this work with other large raptors ie red kites and white-tailed sea eagles. It and other organisations are also involved with other species such as black grouse, grey partridges and red squirrels. Why has the RSPB got objections to using the relocation of hen harriers, as proposed in Defra’s plans for the bird, to improve its conservation status in England?
Instead of criticising gamekeepers and blocking this aspect of the hen harrier recovery plan, I hope the RSPB lets other qualified organisations get on and make a success of it.
Peter Giles
Clacton, Essex
