I SUPPORT Chris Pope’s letter (Stop Double Standards With Blood Sports Ban, News Shopper, January 7).
This referred to the double standards of the Government in banning blood sports through the Hunting with Dogs Act while allowing thousands of game birds and the like to be slaughtered, a practice supported by the Countryside Alliance.
I was born and raised in the countryside and have seen first-hand on many occasions the shocking actions and effects of blood sports.
The Hunting with Dogs Act has proved farcical.
Not only did the Government wait years before implementing its election manifesto promise, the Act itself is not enforced by the police and there is no political will to tighten up the law and stop the profound suffering of animals such as foxes, badgers and hares.
A Conservative government is even less likely to support animal welfare and the humane treatment of all wild animals and birds.
The ongoing practice of shooting at game birds for sport is completely unnecessary and its practice lies in the past history of this country, mainly with the gentry and landowners.
Such a practice has manifestly no appropriate or acceptable place in the 21st century and should be banned once and for all.
John Arnold
Address supplied
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