SIR - Jon Burgess (Letters, December 29) goes into detail about the possible wounding of foxes by shooting since the ban on hunting. His argument is based on the false premise that more foxes will be shot and wounded, the increase in suffering being worse than the removal of chasing them to their death, often involving prolonged digging out by hunt terriermen.

However, there is no reason for shooting to increase as a consequence of the hunting ban and no evidence that it has. Mounted hunting killed approximately 14,000 foxes each year. More than 400,000 die each year from all causes. These figures confirmed by the Burns Report show that the effect on the fox population was insignificant, and that foxhunting is nothing but a bloodsport.

With hunting having no measurable effect on the fox population there is just no need for it to be replaced by other methods of killing. Also, the Burns Report shows that foxes are rarely other than a minor nuisance to some farmers, providing even less motivation to replace hunting by shooting.

If only people would look at the proven facts and base their position on them, we would be saved from those who maintain that hunting with dogs managed the fox population - the figures prove it did not. The welfare of the fox and the other mammals hunted to their death by a pack of dogs has most certainly been improved. Moreover, it can do nothing but good that the malign ethos of a legal bloodsport has been removed for future generations.

PETER BUNCE,

Haddenham, Bucks.