The hunting fraternity seldom mentions that a repeal of the Hunting Act would also mean the barbaric practice of hare coursing being re-legalised.

On Boxing Day the media was also almost universally silent on this aspect, preferring to show sanitised pictures of hunts.

The reality of the horrors of hare coursing was summed up Lady Florence Dixie in her 1891 book The Horrors of Sport: "What more aggravated form of torture is to be found, than coursing with greyhounds – the awful terror of the hare depicting itself in the laid-back ears, convulsive doubles, and wild starting eyes which seem almost to burst from their sockets in the agony of tension which that piteous struggle for life entails"?

It beggars belief that in the 21st century we are facing the threat of bloodsports returning to our countryside. All decent minded and compassionate people from across all classes and political backgrounds will fight to stop the Hunting Act being repealed.

CHRIS GALE Dover Street Chippenham