I HAVE no particular desire to charge about the countryside hunting anything. However, I must take issue with some of the points raised by Ms Edyvean and Reynard Stag (Your Letters, July 7).

To compare paedophile activity with hunting would seem to be an inflammatory smokescreen to disguise the issue.

Yes animals have rights: to be cared for, fed and watered until they are slaughtered for "human pleasure". The fox does not endure any of the indignities that are suffered by food production animals, yet there are no calls to ban farming.

More often than not, the huntsmen are thwarted and the fox is more likely to be killed by a car than Krusty the Clown look-alikes blowing horns.

For Ms Edyvean's information, the slave trade does still exist. Look at the Minimum Wage! If the Government listened to the majority of people then hanging would be reinstated, immigration would have been controlled years ago and homosexuality would still be a crime.

THE VOICE OF REASON,

Radcliffe.