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Hunting: how can they defend it?
Church End, Haddenham, Bucks C J Horsman states (Your say, January 16) with apparent authority that Lord Burns said "You ask if hunting is cruel. The short answer is 'No'."
He adds that "this is a matter of public record and can be checked". At least he is correct about that. His "quote" is actually a mangled version from a Lords debate on hunting.
From Hansard (March 12, 2001, column 533), this is what Lord Burns really said: "Natural-ly, people ask whether we were implying that hunting is cruel but in true Sir Humphrey style were not prepared to say so clearly.
"The short answer to that question is no. There was not sufficient verifiable evidence or data safely to reach views about cruelty."
That has a very different meaning from the one C. J. Horsman would like to believe. I have seen this gross distortion perpetrated by pro-hunt people so often over the years.
I won't bother to go into the many others which litter his letter but, having studied the theory and practice for 14 years, including attending the Burns inquiry, I know that hunting with dogs is unequivocally just a bloodsport with the added disgrace of much anti-social behaviour.
Many readers will have been held up on roads by hunts and their dogs and some may even have collided with out-of-control hounds.
Many people have suffered trespass and from the arrogance which accompanies the chaos they cause.
It is incredible that some still seek to defend it.
Peter Bunce
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