MADAM,
It comes as no surprise that the local young Tories support hunting (Monmouthshire Beacon 4th January).
At the last Countryside Alliance March in London, nearly 90% of those marchers interviewed by an independent polling organisation were Tory. This clearly confirms that the Countryside Alliance is simply an Alliance of Conservatives and the British Field Sports Society.
This Alliance uses other decent rural causes simply to try and bolster numbers and cash for the defence of hunting with hounds.
Ask how many millions of pounds they are about to squander in the next few months on an advertising campaign that is simply about defending fox-hunting. Ask how much money the Alliance spends on advertising other genuine rural causes. The answer to the latter is none!
Of course the Countryside Alliance isn't very good with figures or facts. The Alliance claimed 16,000 jobs would be lost if there was a hunt ban but the Burns inquiry revealed this to be wildly out.
The loss of full-time jobs would be in the hundreds and while other jobs may be affected (less work), all of this could be more than compensated for by taking up drag hunting.
The young Tories also seem to be hopeless with figures thinking there is a rural-urban divide on the issue of hunting.
Numerous nationally representative polls over the last five years have shown the majority of rural dwellers wish to see a ban too. The pro-hunt lobby desperately cites a poll of 2-3 very small, strongly pro deer-hunting villages as the evidence of support for hunting.
At the end of the day, the issue is a moral one. I personally do not think it civilised to torment an animal by chasing it for a long period then letting hounds tear it apart while still alive (post-mortem evidence at the Burns Inquiry). In particular I abhor hunts cornering young frightened and inexperienced fox cubs in September and October, some cubs only three months old, and turning inexperienced hounds on them to get the taste of killing (a barbaric practice hunts call "cubbing").
If the fox is a pest then shooting by lamping is less cruel and appropriate for most of areas like ours (Burns Inquiry). However, in my area the fox is welcome (and the hunt is not) as we have an increasing population of rabbits.
Tam Pennington
Trellech