30 MARCH 2002, Page 30

From Mr Alexander Baldock Sir: David Welch's pique over the

deplorable manners of his local hunts seems to have misted his judgment. The merits of hunting don't depend on risk to the participants, any more than the slim chance of being savaged by a trout invalidates angling. He frets that hunting leads to the fox's death 'over a prolonged period in an inhumane manner'. Perhaps he prefers the gangrenous rotting away produced by trapping, the unhurried death of a fox disembowelled by shotgun, or the salivating agony of poisoning?

Alexander Baldock

London W14