Letter: Urban louts, rural hunters

Sir: Is Polly Toynbee ("Labour should go to earth on fox-hunting", 16 June) seriously putting forward the argument that because methods of food production (animal farming) are so horrendous it is hypocritical to abhor other inhumane practices? I think the telling phrase in her article is "They [fox-hunters] are people out enjoying themselves."

I have yet to hear an inhumane farmworker, transporter or slaughterer admit to this. "Animal sentimentalists" are already aware that many hound pups are "surplus to requirement" each season and that hounds have fulfiled their useful purposes to the hunts well in advance of their normal lifespan, at which point they are dispatched, often in the most barbaric fashion.

If Ms Toynbee imagines that racehorses are found cosy barracks in hunt quarters I suggest that she speaks to one of the many equine charities, who will confirm that thousands of racehorses each year are sent off to abattoirs or to end their days in wretched riding establishments.

Inhumanity exists in all classes. The difference is that if a group of louts from an inner-city housing estate hunts down, terrifies, and tortures an animal to death they are roundly condemned. If a group of "countryfolk" form a group and call themselves "a hunt" some gullible souls will accept their behaviour as traditional and romantic and therefore quite acceptable. That is the only respect in which this is a class issue.

ANNA FARLOW

London NW22