Feeling hunted (From The Argus)

Feeling hunted

5:17pm Friday 4th June 2010 in Your Argus

Many readers will certainly share Lynne Ismail’s dismay (Letters, May 27) that our new Government might allow the barbaric practice of hunting animals for sport to be restored. That would be an appallingly backward step.

Although I approve of much of the coalition Government’s announced programme (especially the restoration of some of our lost civil rights), it causes concern that no mention has been made of any intention to improve animal welfare.

This implies that no action is planned to curb battery farming, with all its cruelty towards animals and serious repercussions on human health, or to abolish laboratory experiments on creatures of other species.

Countless medical experts have denounced such experiments as scientifically worthless, and numerous medical disasters have proved them right in their warnings of the dangers of using animals to research human ailments. However laudable many of the coalition’s aims may be, its neglect of the mistreatment of animals surely calls for severe criticism from the public it is supposed to serve.

Dennis B Stuart
Marine Parade, Brighton

Lynne Ismail asks those of us who abhor hunting with hounds to write to our MPs requesting them to vote against a repeal of the Hunting Act (Letters, May 27). I forwarded a letter to my MP more than six months ago asking for his position on the subject. To date I have received no reply. Sadly, I fear that with the general election done and dusted, our protests will now fall on deaf ears. Even the free vote in parliament is unlikely to have any consequence. The gentry are back in control and we peasants must learn to fall in line with their demands.

Looking back to January 1 this year, a letter from me appeared on this page warning that hunting with hounds would be reinstated if the Conservatives won the election. I asked the question: “Are we a nation of animal lovers or are we to lose the current recognition we enjoy the world over?” Well, the people of Britain have shown how genuine they are and answered my question. They elected the hunt-promoting Conservatives with the largest number of MPs. We will no longer be a nation of animal lovers if the hunting act is repealed and the world will know it.

Ken Strudwick
Hayley Road, Lancing