Protect Our Wild Animals (POWA) urges the Prime Minister to reject the call for repeal of the Hunting Act by Farming Minister Jim 'Kill the Badgers' Paice and to denounce and clamp down on the cynical subterfuge being employed by hunts nationwide to flout the spirit and letter of the 'ban' on hunting with hounds.

Many hunts exploit weak enforcement and the Act's many loopholes to chase and kill live quarry much as pre-ban.

They pretend to be using certain exemptions or "trail hunting", or pretend that they lost control of their hounds by "accident" every single time they are seen chasing forbidden quarry.

Regrettably, most of the media, by tending to show only 'chocolate box' images of hunt meets, not only disguise the cruel truth from the public but comfort the lawless.

Images of the brutal and sordid reality of hunting, its 'sharp end', where terrified and exhausted wild animals are ripped at by slavering dogs urged on by excited hunters, would send soaring the proportion of the public wanting these barbaric activities properly banned, even above its present 3-1.

Then, perhaps, those who should know better would stop, openly or tacitly, supporting this vile and vicious 'sport'.

Alan Kirby

Protect Our Wild Animals