MR J Woods is wrong (You Say, April 21). Hunting with dogs does not unite rural communities. The majority of people living in the countryside wish to see a ban on this vile and vicious sport.

This is not only because they abhor the cruelty of it, but also the misery and mayhem that every hunt season brings, such as trespass and the disturbance and killing of livestock.

Many of these people are intimidated into silence, the kind of threatening intimidation that, as monitors, we witness all too often in the hunting fields.

And, of course, another important reason to ban hunting is the risk that by its very nature, hunting has the potential to spread disease. Miles of countryside will be covered in the pursuit of the quarry species.

The madness of the continuation of this "sport" for entertainment and social climbing purposes can be neatly summed up by Oscar Wilde's famous quote, "the unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable."

A KNITTEL, Worcester.