MANY who support a ban on hunting with dogs may be inclined to feel differently about a ban on shooting pheasants. Millions of pheasants are raised every year in factory conditions. Because of the high-density conditions on pheasant farms they may be fitted with contraptions that pass through their nasal cavities and prevent them from closing their beaks.

Or they may have parts of their beaks sliced off to prevent pecking.

Of the 13 million pheasants shot each season almost half are discarded because there is no market for them. They are either left where they fall, or are buried or fed to foxes being raised in artificial earths by the hunting set. But that's another story.

T B Woodward,

High Street,

Thornton Dale, Pickering.

Updated: 10:30 Tuesday, October 30, 2001