I DO not care who distorted the clear, clean image of the Kilburn White Horse, or who vandalised the roundabouts of York's outer ring road with its slogans - be it the Countryside Alliance or the real CA.

But the sickening image, shown recently on television, of a stag being hunted 13 miles and swimming for dear life in a river, haunts me more than a few pieces of red carpet sewn together or words scrawled on roundabouts.

These people can use the well-worn excuse of foxes being vermin; but just what has the majestic stag done to deserve such a cruel fate, except adorn with its beauty the countryside they purport to love?

If Mr Blair has not the courage to vote on an issue he used as an election tool, we should be allowed a national referendum.

I would like to think that we would then follow Scotland's example of an all-out ban on hunting with dogs.

W P Carter,

Marston Crescent,

Acomb, York.

Updated: 10:39 Monday, September 02, 2002