I am aware of the irony in recent reports that the anti-hunting legislation may be repealed, while at the same time you have featured stories and photos of foxes that visit people's gardens and have been made welcome there.

Two foxes visit me every evening and I have been able to get to know them as individual beings with their distinctive personalities and quirks. I value the trust they have given to me and I gain enormous pleasure in spending time with them. Last week during one of the heavy rainstorms one of them even came into my porch to get out of the deluge.

It has always been incomprehensible to me that any human could gain enjoyment out of seeing a terrified wild creature chased to exhaustion and then ripped apart by a pack of dogs and I am certain the majority of the population feels the same way.

May I suggest a straightforward way of judging whether the "sport" is morally acceptable? Just imagine that foxhunting had never existed and someone now came up with the idea for the first time. If that person were to propose that the best way of stopping foxes taking livestock was to train a pack of dogs to chase foxes across the countryside and rip them to shreds, followed by members of the public riding horses in order to watch the spectacle, the public would think it was some kind of sick joke.

But, because this barbaric practice has been going on for a long time, and because the minority who support it are vastly over-represented in terms of influence and wealth, it has survived even though it is now illegal.

I suppose the reason that other equally cruel "country sports" like dog fighting and bull baiting mercifully died out was because they did not have that kind of support.

And let us not be hoodwinked by nonsensical arguments that the foxes are killed painlessly by a quick bite, or that hunts rarely actually catch the fox. One aspect of the "sport" is to chase and kill young cubs as a kind of practice for killing adults later on. Sadly, neither police nor the Government regard breaches of the law as important enough to do anything about.

It upsets me enormously to think that, after the next election, it seems very likely that the laws will be repealed and this appalling behaviour will be legalised again.

Perhaps it is time for everyone who has enjoyed your recent photos of charming garden foxes to realise that their rural cousins need a louder voice to protect their futures and to speak out before it is too late.

Steve Turner, Evington.