Here we go again – Cameron's Hoods, the local hunt fraternity, are out in force. Yes, here come the 'I have got a horse and I am not afraid to dash about showing off my shiny buckles and knobs and kill defenceless furry animals' brigade!

'Bravo' they shout.

'It's in my blood; it's a tradition don't you know, the countryside is crying out for us to return, we are all powerful.'

Well, have I got news for you..

Firstly, hunting with dogs is illegal and was banned using a democratic process, where an overwhelming number of people voted against the unnecessary cruelty that a pack of hounds can inflict, whilst goring to death an helpless animal.

I run a local smallholding and over the past year have lost a lamb, eaten by a fox – it was my fault, down to bad shepherding. I should not have been so hasty in letting the little yew back to the main heard. (Shepherds watch their flocks by night?!)

When I was growing up on a farm, my job was to look after the hens, duck,s etc. I remember very vividly late one night penning them all up and finding that a fox was there and had killed half a dozen or more. Did I get a ticking off from dad!

My dad said that the fox that killed all the chicks on a neighbouring farm and he would go and tell the local gamekeeper. Within a few days he had shot the culprit and that was that.

I can remember the gamekeeper was a kind man who loved animals and he would be most upset if he ever had to fire his gun twice to kill something – this was, and I believe still is, the most effective form of humane pest control.

Unless a pest, the animal was used for food, which brings me on to another hunting subject – pheasant shooting. The birds used to be shot by true sportsmen and then sold for food in local butchers' shops. Nowadays there are so many insecticides and chemicals put into game bird food, it is really not advisable to eat them, so instead most are buried using a JCB.

I believe that birds bred just for sport should be outlawed – the same as using dogs as weapons.

The bad press which hunting people have given the farming world is disgraceful. The truth is the majority of farmers care about the stewardship of our land and the importance of humane wildlife coalition and don't want anything to do with the sadistic society of blood sport, which incidentally spreads diseases across the countryside such as salmonellosis and brucellosis etc.

There is one final thought about the hunt. Is it such a good place for the welfare of a child to be encouraged into such a grotesque and sadistic ritual, which involved smearing the fresh blood of the kill into the face of that child?

PAUL CHANT Rhybridge Farm Midsomer Norton

Re: Dan Norris's recent letter. I would just like to point out that there is no such thing as a fox hunting ban.

I believe most people would be shocked to know that it is still legal to shoot, poison or snare foxes.

The ban refers only to hunting mammals (bar, I believe, rats and rabbits) with dogs.

If we are going to comment on the merits of a ban, then the correct information should be available, to ensure that any debate is a correctly informed one.

KIM GARDNER Wellsway, Keynsham