Though better training for workers dealing with animals is usually welcome, the Government-approved new element of an NVQ in 'Animal Care' that is 'relevant to working in hunt kennels' seems a grotesque and hypocritical contradiction in terms.

Hunt kennels are centres at which packs of dogs are trained to terrorise and kill defenceless wild animals for the amusement of their followers. It's an open secret that many hunts continue to do this by shamelessly exploiting the weaknesses, loopholes and lax enforcement of the Hunting Act.

Then there are the pets and livestock regularly chased, mauled or killed by out-of- control hunt hounds, and the frequency with which they put their own dogs (and the public) at risk by allowing them to run on to roads and other hazards.

Hunt kennels habitually and ruthlessly dispose of the hounds they so purport to 'love' – mostly with a bullet in the head – when they are deemed old to hunt (at about half their natural life span).

No amount of NVQ certificates will paper over the inherent cruelty of hunts and hunters. We need the Act to be strengthened to properly arrest their awful abuses of both wild and domestic animals, not repealed to reward their ruthless rapacity.

Alan Kirby

Protect Our Wild Animals Details supplied