HUNTING FEAR: I write in response to your feature headlined as 'Hunt hopes for a reprieve' (The Sentinel, December 28).

I for one would hope that the great British public have long enough memories to recall the state the previous Tory governments left this country in and, although the present Government are not fantastic, I would bet behind the green smokescreen Mr Cameron and co hide behind not a lot has changed within their ranks.

However, should the unthinkable happen, I for one would not only campaign for the present ban to stay in law, but for it to be more rigously enforced and I would ask for provisions under the mental health act to be made for the detention of anyone who thinks that chasing a defenseless creature such as a fox or stag over miles and miles of countryside with a pack of hounds until it is physically exhausted and unable to get away, then that pack ripping it apart while still alive, is a rational and sane thing for people to do.

I thought that the blood lust was an emotion lost to the savagery of the Middle Ages.

However, as the picture in The Sentinel shows, it is still alive and kicking in the middle classes.

Before the hunting ban came into law, I remember the warning cry of the pro-hunt campaigners stating that there would be mass job losses in the countryside as stable hands and kennel workers lost their jobs, and that there would be mass slaughter of hunting hound packs once the ban arrived. It just never happened.

It is a traditional sight to see the hounds out being exercised with the riders.

But what is wrong with just having the drag hunt? Why must they insist on the kill at the end?

It is barbarous and belongs to the past.

MR B BYRNE

Stoke-on-Trent