SHOOTING pheasants... once again the Countryside Alliance waves the diversionary red flag and plays the Toffs R Us card.

Statistics quoted in New Scientist reveal some 20 per cent of hand-reared birds are killed on the roads and a smaller proportion provide food for foxes.

In fact, this unnatural yearly influx of chicks so severely unbalances the environment that it is banned in Holland.

It's nothing to do with control of vermin. This is all about an activity that just satisfies the bloodlust which is really behind foxhunting.

R MARTIN,

Badsey, near Evesham.