SIR: I would expect the Lancashire County Chairman of the Countryside Alliance to be more factual with his comments (BEN March 13), 300,000 people might have taken part in the countryside march but not all of them supported bloodsports. To quote one farmer's wife attending the march: "I do not support fox-hunting because the fox keeps the rabbit population down and they can be a bigger pest than any fox".

Pilkington states fieldsports (pro hunt) supporters are in the majority. This is very odd when it is documented that over 70 per cent of the population of Britain would ban all bloodsports, if any government had the guts to carry out their wishes.

Pilkington smugly concludes: "The sands of time are not against us (pro hunt lobbyists) and Michael Foster's Bill is not going to see Government time and it is, therefore, doomed to the failure it justly deserves". To this I reply, don't count your chickens just yet Mr Pilkington, there are a lot of people who care passionately about the countryside but want nothing to do with hunting as you know but care not to admit.

Mr A Waddington

Address supplied.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.