Letters

J WOODROW (HAS, Dec 28) says the fox is an extremely cruel killer, which kills for the joy of it.

It has the right to live and eat. After all, we are meant to be sharing this planet with all living creatures. So it's a great pity that humans give the thumbs down to millions of cows, lambs, chickens, pigs, turkeys to fill their ever-expanding girths.

The animals humans slaughter haven't even a chance to escape. Humans don't need to hunt for their food. The fox does. - Rachel Hunter, Stockton.

IN reply to Mr Woodrow (HAS, Dec 28), I would like to point out that the fox does not kill for fun - only people kill for fun.

The fox, having entered a chicken coop, will, through instinct, kill the chickens having come across an abundance of prey which cannot escape, something completely unnatural in the wild.

So it follows its instinct to chase something that is fleeing. The fox will often return to the coop to bury the surplus.

The fox, like a human, is an opportunist. Much like ourselves when we see a bargain, we go for it. The same behaviour can be seen in a well-fed cat. It will still stalk and kill a bird even though it is not hungry.

As for hunting, saying it controls foxes is untrue. Foxes control themselves, so the answer is to leave them alone. A fox's life span is short. Some never see their second year because of trapping, hunting, poison and road traffic. - W Chrisp, Durham.

IN reply to Mr Woodrow's (HAS, Dec 28) assertion that the fox kills for the sheer joy of it, is it not true that those strange people dressed in red coats and riding horses hunt for the same reasons?

If the fox is such a ferocious animal as Mr Woodrow describes, would it not be better to completely eradicate the fox?

Put any animal, dog or cat, into a poultry shed and it will no doubt kill anything that moves.

Having said that, the poor stag is hunted in the same manner as the fox. What harm does this animal do?

Is the Countryside Alliance aware that it is a criminal offence for any person to abuse a child, to cause violence to any person, not just the elderly, and to use and deal in drugs?

These offences are being quite efficiently dealt with by the police and other agencies.

Does the Countryside Alliance also realise the extra burden put on our police forces when they converge on our cities in their hundreds waving banners about. The officers' time could be better spent preventing crimes against children and the elderly.

Hopefully, and in the near future, hunting with hounds will also be a criminal offence. - P Wild, Stockton.

HOPEFULLY, the year 2001 will bring to an end the cruel and barbaric so-called sports of fox hunting and hare coursing.

To those who get their pleasure from these "sports" may I quote the words of Dr Albert Schweitzer. "Compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind". - R White, Middlesbrough.

ASYLUM SEEKERS

THE Bishop of Durham (Echo, Dec 24) compares asylum seekers with the infant Jesus, seeking room in Bethlehem.

However, he fails to mention that the Holy Family returned to Nazareth a few days later.

We are betraying our own descendants by taking in all these people, most of whom have countries far bigger than this one, of their own.

If we do not want our own descendants to become the wandering Jews of the future with no country of their own, we should stop now with this lunacy of multi-culture. - TD Callahan, Darlington.

JOB LOSSES

THE recent report by the TUC of more than 5,000 jobs lost in the North-East in the past 12 months and with the prediction of a further 10,000 next year in the struggling manufacturing sector is sad news for the North-East, this with fresh evidence of the North-South divide.

What puzzles me is how a Labour Government can sit back and see our manufacturing industry decimated when it was so critical of the previous government when the old industries were declining. The voters who have so loyally supported the Labour MPs in this region have a right to feel betrayed.

The damage caused to exports is due to the strength of the pound against the euro. Prudence Brown can stop the haemorrhaging of jobs at a stroke by reducing interest rates, but it maybe he thinks high interest rates are a price worth paying for the loss of these jobs.- George Smith, South Shields.

TV FAVOURITES

WHAT a shame that Bruce Forsyth has been axed by ITV. He is a British institution.

He has been a consistent entertainer on television for decades and although I am in my twenties, I enjoyed his gags and madcap stances.

We will now have to put up with the dismal likes of Goodness Gracious Me, the left-wing gutter-like nonsense of Ben Elton and the homosexual-praising Graham Norton instead of Mr Forsyth.

Give me Brucie or Jim Davidson any day and not forgetting my old favourite Bernard Manning. Wake up television bosses. - Christopher Wardell, Darlington.

SEXISM

I AM dubious about Peter Mullen's suggestion that the sexist name Manchester could be changed to Personchester (Echo, Dec 26).

I think a little positive discrimination is needed here and would like to recommend that the city should henceforth be known as Perdaughterchester. - Pete Winstanley, Chester-le-Street.