Animals still pests to farmers

A letter to the Star deprecates the work of the Countryside Alliance because the latter does not share the writer's anti-hunting views.

What the alliance does do is campaign tirelessly for better and more affordable rural transport and housing and against the loss of such amenities as village shops, pubs and post offices and the menace of fly-tipping.

However, the letter writer concentrates on the CA's ongoing efforts to secure a repeal of the Hunting Act, raising again the archaic issue of artificial earths which encouraged foxes to breed therein.

Although these were built by hunting landowners in the Victorian era when foxes were becoming scarce, they probably helped to ensure the revival of the species, a fact which should surely give your correspondent cause for rejoicing.

She asserts that foxes are definitely not vermin as they are less prolific breeders than dogs, cats or rats, so we may be sheltering some domesticated vermin by our firesides!

The farmer or poultry-keeper surveying the results of a nocturnal fox raid will probably have different ideas, but most people will agree that a healthy, wild fox is a grand sight.

Even the loathed rat can appear quite cute at times, but attractiveness doesn't prevent both from being agricultural pests.

Mrs B R Lewis, Dorrington