YOUR correspondent Sheilah Fielding (Your Letters, May 14) in criticising those who support hunting, overlooks a few simple truths.

Farmers, by the nature of their job, understand the realism of life and death in the animal kingdom and the need to control predators. That is why they support and encourage hunting over their land.

Field sports of every kind are supported by the vast majority of the rural population. More than 3,000 turned out in the High Street in Ledbury on Boxing Day to show their support for the local hunt.

People who follow the hunt in this area, either on horseback, in cars or on foot are a good cross-section of the local community and include doctors, vets, nurses, solicitors, dentists, postmen, engineers, salesmen, school teachers, hotel owners, fuel suppliers, landscape gardeners and, of course, lots of farmers, retired people and children.

Are we really barbaric or just good local people who have no wish to see a traditional rural way of life destroyed by those who fail to understand the true nature of the issues involved?

DONALD HADEN, Hallwood Green, Dymock.