I WOULD like to respond to a letter from James Barrington in Thursday’s Adver. Mr Barrington calls himself an ‘Animal Welfare Consultant’ but what is omitted is that he is the animal welfare consultant for the Countryside Alliance, a dubious organisation which wants to bring back the killing of deer, hares and foxes for fun. Not sure where the animal welfare comes in.

I would like to pick up on a couple of the points he made. He mentions 570 veterinary surgeons who would support the repeal of the hunting ban. There are two types of vets. Those that most of us know who do a fantastic job of caring for our pets and who would never countenance the barbarity of hunting with hounds. The second type are the so-called vets who work for the livestock industry, slaughterhouses, vivisection laboratories and Government agencies like DEFRA. These people pay lip service to animal welfare as long as their paymasters can maximise profit at the animal’s expense and it is this type of vet that might support hunting.

The second point I would make is that there is no appetite for a repeal of the ban in parliament. James Barrington quotes the unprincipled Tony Blair of not supporting the ban but I think that would be reason enough for most decent people to support it. Although we have a number of new Conservative MPs. There are a good number, unlike our two Swindon MPs, who do represent the views of their constituents on this subject, and would vote to support the ban on hunting.

PHILIP BEAVEN

Merton Avenue

Swindon