Facts and figures on foxhunting today

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jul/13/facts-and-figures-on-foxhunting-today

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David Cameron says he is merely bringing English and Welsh hunting laws in line with Scottish hunting legislation (Report, 9 July). He perhaps doesn’t realise that only 35 SNP MPs were in the Scottish parliament when the Scottish laws were created. The current SNP MPs have every right to vote with their consciences on Wednesday, and represent the people who put them in Westminster, and may now choose to look at updating Scottish policy (Labour urges SNP to oppose foxhunting repeal, 13 July).Margaret BarnicleHolmer Green, Buckinghamshire

• Defra’s rural freedom of information team spokesperson stated on 25 March 2014: “There are no official statistics in England, Scotland and Wales on the number of lambs lost to foxes for the period 2011-13 inclusive.” If there are no statistics collected, how can anyone know that fox predation has increased to a degree that justifies changing the law on the grounds of “pest control”? What we do know, from the National Animal Disease Information Service is that “lamb deaths from birth to three days old in the majority of UK flocks ranges from 10% to 25% which represents 2 to 6 million dead lambs annually”. Defra consistently reports that 95% of these deaths are due to starvation, hypothermia, mis-mothering and disease (arguably poor husbandry) and that only 5% are due to a combination of misadventure and predation. Hence, at least from the 1970s, government agriculture departments have consistently stated: “The loss of lambs to foxes does not constitute a loss of economic significance to the farming community nationally.”John BryantProtect Our Wild Animals

• A significant number of hunt supporters are farmers and stockmen, who care on a daily basis for the cows, pigs, sheep and poultry that produce our food. They are all animal lovers. They are familiar with the ways of nature, have witnessed the slaughter and injury that fox and mink can inflict, and made the decision that hunting falls on the acceptable side of their moral compass. Accusations of cruelty are insulting, and firmly rejected by a group responsible for the conservation of our environment and wildlife for centuries. Who would disagree that they have maintained the right balance and made a good job of it?Richard HoskingIvybridge, Devon

• Stephen Moss has been out hunting several times – purely for “journalistic reasons” – and, referring to the hunters, he says that “a nicer set of people you could not find” (David Cameron the sly fox is about to legalise hunting by stealth, 9 July). As a hunt monitor, I can only suggest that – purely for journalistic reasons – he comes out incognito with the monitors, and faces the abuse, hostility, obstruction, foul insults and even physical violence routinely meted out to us by these “nice” hunters. Penny LittleGreat Haseley, Oxfordshire

• The north of Scotland and the islands are suffering from a terrible harvest due to high rain levels, resulting in cattle going to market early, and the prospects of a huge cost burden for winter feed. Yet the Tory high command’s only rural policy is to reinstate the inhumane killing of foxes for fun. So much for their oft repeated claim that they are the supporters of the rural economy.Eric GoodyerBerwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland