SIR — The Bateson Report on deer hunting was a comprehensive report on the suffering of deer during the hunting process. When the results did not come out favourably for staghunting, some of its supporters attempted to rubbish his work. Mr Denny did just that, again, in his letter (Free Press January 3).
Like it or not, this report is still the benchmark for all that is wrong in staghunting. It was the first scientific work that proved what is quite apparent to most people, and Mr Denny's almost pitiful denial of this doesn't alter the facts, nor does it influence the people who matter in the hunting debate.
Hunt supporter Mrs Milnes, in her letter of the same date, says that snaring is a cruel method of culling, yet she failed to point out that this could have been banned back in the mid-1990s when the Wild Mammals Act became law, but it was removed when many bloodsport supporting MPs and peers threatened to scupper the whole Bill if snaring was included.
Now, it appears they are saying snaring is cruel for no other reason then to save hunting with hounds!
After hunting, of course, snares should be banned, and with such new-found widespread recognition of the suffering they inflict, this should be relatively straightforward!
Red deer number some 10,000 in the South West and only half of these are in staghunting country. Some 1,000 are already culled by rifle alongside the hunts' tally of around 160. the other 5,000 in the South West, where the hunts are not welcome for whatever reason, sustain their numbers without the so-called 'custodians of the deer' subjecting them to the unnatural, barbaric and cruel ordeal which staghunting is.
Arminel Scott,
Secretary,
South West Deer Protection.