13 JANUARY 2001, Page 34

Verminous vulpines

From Mr John Oliver Sir: Bruce Anderson (Politics, 30 December) states 'if there had been no incentive for farmers to conserve foxes over the last four centuries, the fox might now be as rare in the countryside as the wild cat or the pine marten'. At least that clears up the issue about foxes being vermin and fox hunting being a form of pest control.

John Oliver

Morden, Surrey