Humane fox hunting

SIR – While I agree with Melvyn Owen (Letters, January 23) that hunting with hounds is the best means of controlling foxes, I would take issue with what he says about shooting.

His claim that “it is very difficult to shoot dead such a small, swiftly moving target” implies that most foxes are shot with a shotgun. In fact, most foxes are shot with a rifle while stationary – and few are injured and left to die in pain.

The problem with the shooting of foxes isn’t that more are wounded rather than killed quickly; the problem is that it is indiscriminate. Hounds mainly kill the old and the sick; shooting kills anything. Thus hunting with hounds maintains a healthy population of foxes at a level which can be tolerated by farmers and conservationists.

Richard Everard

Loughborough, Leicestershire