NOVEMBER 1 will see the start of the hunting season and the excellent letter written by John Rolls (Director of Animal Welfare, RSPCA - Your View October 5) reinforcing the RSPCA's support of the hunting ban, is a timely reminder.

Unfortunately hunts continue to seek loopholes in the act and one approach, being adopted by some, is in the use of birds of prey - for example eagle owls, to assist in the flushing out of foxes (currently hunts are allowed to use two hounds for this purpose).

This is a practice which the RSPCA does not condone and, in my opinion, is yet another example of the hunting establishment sticking two fingers up to the Government simply because a large proportion of their members believe themselves to be above the law.

In order for the ban to be effective, it is important that hunting activity is monitored.

Observer, Bromsgrove