RE your report concerning the fox-hunting debate (Riders in a storm, December 27).

Why do blood-sport enthusiasts continue to hunt foxes contrary to the law of the land? And are they so selective in the laws they ignore or uphold, bearing in mind that we live in a democracy in this green and pleasant land of ours?

According to my reckoning (and the overwhelming will of Parliament) the anachronism that is hunting with hounds is illegal and anyone found flouting the main tenets of the Hunting Act is breaking the law, it's as simple as that.

Now, the answers to the questions I asked above can be summed up in one word - arrogance.

The arrogance born of the hunting fraternity's centuries-old tradition of thinking and believing that the countryside and everything in it (people and wildlife) belongs to them, to do with as they wish. Indeed this feudal thinking still prevails in the minds of the hunting hierarchy even today.

It's in the blood you know, in more ways than one. Meanwhile, the rest of us (the majority) have become more civilised and more thoughtful about the countryside, its people and its wildlife.

And so the time has come for the hunters to be brought to book for their generations of abuse to man and beast!

The League Against Cruel Sports has already had a successful prosecution against a huntsman and are following up other hunting misdemeanours through its excellent and praiseworthy hunt monitor scheme.

The silent majority is sick of this minority of cruel and arrogant people pretending to be the victims, not the perpetrators, of barbaric acts.

I urge anyone who witnesses their local hunt breaking the law to report it to the appropriate authorities. The countryside belongs to the many, not the few!

Mr H Griffith, Malton