A REECE (You Say, May 19) claims the Countryside Alliance is a one-issue group with no interest other than to preserve hunting. Nothing is further from the truth.

During the foot-and-mouth crisis the Alliance has been at the forefront in trying to halt the disease, recruiting staff, promoting measures to prevent its spread, seeking funds to aid hard-pressed farmers and advising the Government.

The broad agenda of the Countryside Alliance makes the Labour Party look like a single issue pressure group when it comes to rural affairs. Obsessed with little else but the banning of hunting with dogs the future of our countryside does not look bright under New Labour.

During the foot-and-mouth epidemic some organisations in the animal rights movement have seen fit to attack farmers and rural communities, demonstrating beyond all doubt that they have little interest in real animal welfare.

J BURGESS, Malvern.