It never fails to amaze me when countryside people jump at an opportunity and decide that another species of wildlife needs to be culled.

This is the response to the unfortunate death of a man who was in collision with a wild boar and according to the countryside hunters and shooters, hunting is required to keep wildlife numbers in check!

Well, hunting can only increase the probability of collisions with wildlife and other spurious events such as terrified deer chased off a cliff to death by a local hunt, five young hounds followed or huntsman rides horse against traffic on busy A5.

We only have to look at the problems fox hunts have had recently with hounds being run over by buses, cars and trains.

I have not yet seen any reports involving aircraft, but that leads on to an interesting story your readers may be interested in.

I and others were monitoring the opening meet of the East Devon hunt at Rockbeare Manor which is very close to both the A30 and Exeter Airport, in fact I spent a lot of the time that day plane spotting from a bridge over the A30 which runs as a dual carriageway from Honiton to the Exeter M5 interchange.

At one point during our monitoring we filmed the hunt in fields adjacent to the busy A30 and in fact some hunt supporters had parked up on some of the lay-bys to observe the hunts’ activity.

It was several days later that I noticed road signs along that stretch of road warning drivers to be aware of the possibility of deer darting out for the adjacent woods.

Now with a hunt operating close to the A30 then the possibility of deer and foxes and other wildlife fleeing from the hounds across the road must surely increase.

I did contact Inspector Nevin Hunter the Wildlife Crime Officer with Devon & Cornwall Constabulary for his comments about this situation.

Sadly he told me I should relay my concerns through the League Against Cruel Sports and not bother him directly.

That was in the autumn of 2006 and sadly Devon & Cornwall Constabulary have not taken on any illegal hunting cases.

With a large number of hunts operating in the constabulary area they must be turning a blind eye to illegal hunting and all the associated disruption they sometimes cause.

Perhaps if a hunt causes a delay to a winter holiday flight out of Exeter Airport then the passengers may complain enough to warrant some police action, especially in this awful weather where a winter break is a real treat to look forward to and should not be interfered with by out of control hounds on the runway!

Wildlife sometimes requires management, but there are so many humane options now available such as contraception in food and humanely removing the breeding females when numbers get too large.

Setting a full pack of hounds on fit and healthy wildlife has no place in modern countryside management schemes, It’s just a bloody cruel sport for those unable to adjust to the twenty-first century.

Fox hunting demonstrates this with ‘bagged foxes’' and ‘artificial earths’, breeding foxes for the hunt use.

Graham Forsyth Fairway Rise Chard Somerset