WITH reference to The Press item about the carbon-zero home being built at Acomb Green, this stirred childhood memories (The Press, July 13).

My father took me to that location to witness the start of the annual York and Ainsty Hunt meeting, a gathering of horse and hound with the traditional stirrup cup being passed around.

Later, during my late teens while engaged in training bloodhounds for the gentry in Nether and Upper Poppleton, one duty caused me to make frequent visits to the hound kennels for horse meat and laying tracks for the bloodhounds in training, later to be sold to the American police force where their prowess in following a scent pattern was second to none. As for the curb on the hunting of foxes, the debate still rages on, but in my experience for the most part the fox outwitted its predators. While one does not condone animal cruelty in any form, look no further than the pain and death we humans inflict on each other on a daily basis regardless of age and/or infirmity.

Kenneth Bowker, Vesper Walk, Huntington, York.