THERE must have been be countless people who were appalled, as I was, at receiving leaflets included in the Oxford Mail, advertising the CLA Game Fair.

These leaflets showed a picture of fox hounds, despite the fact that hunting with hounds is illegal, and despite the fact that the local Heythrop Hunt was found guilty of breaking the Hunting Act.

Your paper also promoted this organisation at Christmas time by sympathetic reporting of the Boxing Day hunt.

There have been two recent articles promoting the Fair, in addition to paid publicity.

Your article (Thursday, July 17) stated: “two pubs have been built – the Gunmakers and the Hare and Hounds.”

Those who wish to blast game birds out of the sky for their own pleasure are unfortunately legally entitled to do so, and 35 million non-indigenous pheasants are introduced annually to satiate blood lust. Hares are, of course, an endangered species, but that will be of no concern to people of this mentality.

Woodstock is outwardly a charming village, but civilization is often a thin veneer, and Woodstock is dominated by Blenheim Palace.

Anyone wandering up the high street will be confronted by a sign outside the Bear Inn, showing a bear being baited by a hound.

Humanity will never acquire true humanity until it takes a step up the ladder of evolutionary consciousness by rejecting such primitive pastimes.

MARK PRITCHARD Linkside Avenue Oxford

Today’s letters

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