Letter: Puritans in pursuit of fox-hunters

Sir: To Polly Toynbee's excellent article on fox-hunting only two points need to be added:

1. There are rural communities for which hunting, as well as supplying an important source of revenue and employment (custom in hotels, pubs, B&B, the breeding and care of horses and hounds, jobs for hunt staff), also performs a valuable social function, providing free entertainment to huge numbers of foot followers as well as sport for the riders. Such communities would suffer both economically and socially from a ban and, no doubt, be left feeling alienated by the urban-dominated concerns of current MPs.

2. The death of the hunted fox may be violent but the diseased, mangy, lingering demise of those that survive to perish from natural causes is infinitely worse.

FERNANDA PIRIE

London SW8