I am neither an animal rights activist nor an anti- bloodsports campaigner.

I feel that the fox is a predator and if chickens, sheep or cattle are to be kept safe then numbers of foxes need to be controlled; also, deer do an incredible amount of damage if left to multiply unhindered.

However, I cannot reconcile the need to control vermin numbers with dressing up, riding expensive horses with equally expensive equipment, keeping packs of hounds, paying masters, whippers-in, etc, and then chasing the fox or deer until it is exhausted and finally pulling it to pieces.

This would be ludicrous in pursuit of a rat or mouse yet no one objects to the extermination of these animals – even cruelly in the case of using a cat or a terrier.

The use of a pack of hounds to pursue an animal has been banned and I don't think we should condone any group of people who have been breaking the law.

Please try to find an acceptable, lawful way to keep fox and deer numbers down – surely this is not beyond the guardians of the land?

Ann Baker Chippenham Wiltshire