Sir, – Why am I not surprised by the Scottish Government’s decision to introduce a new hunting bill, which would severely curtail the use of hounds, after the review carried out on the government’s behalf by Lord Bonomy, recommended that there should be no change in the number of hounds permitted to hunt foxes?

The reason is because we are governed by a bunch of politicians whose agenda is fuelled by ignorance and prejudice. This Bill has little or nothing to do with animal welfare, despite Environment Minister Mairi McAllan’s claims to the contrary.

In fact, if passed, this legislation is likely to see many more foxes being shot, which can frequently result in a slow and agonising death for the fox, as all too often they are wounded and not killed outright. At least with hunting, the fox is either killed quickly by nearby guns, or escapes to live another day.

I do not hunt, but I am involved with farming and conservation, both of which are adversely affected by foxes. If we see lambs being taken by foxes, which regularly occurs in the spring we know that we can call upon our local hunt to come and sort out the problem with hounds and guns.

Perhaps an even more distressing spectacle than a fox taking a lamb off its mother, is when a fox grabs not only a red-listed curlew from its nest, but then proceeds to eat its eggs or chicks as well as the mother.

Foxes are undoubtedly amongst the biggest predators of ground nesting birds we have in this country and that, combined with the damage which they can inflict on poultry and sheep, means that we need all the tools at our disposal to keep them under control. The erosion of the ability to control foxes with hounds just means that not only will livestock suffer but endangered bird species, already in serious decline, are unlikely to recover – let alone survive.

Rather than concentrating on an Act which has worked tolerably well since its introduction in 2004, the Scottish Government would do well to focus on more pressing matters, such as encouraging farmers to grow food rather than trees, especially now that we are faced with possible food shortages as a result of the conflict in Ukraine (biggest exporter of sunflower oil in the world, second biggest of barley, fourth largest producer of potatoes, ninth largest of chicken eggs).

The government’s obsession with growing more and more trees is not going to put food on the table and while I am a great advocate of farming with nature in a profitable way, taking out large areas of land for growing trees is not going to either solve global warming or provide much needed food.

As in all things, there has to be a balance and while the production of food by farmers is of vital importance, so is the balance of nature in achieving that production. Taking out a vital cog in the method of controlling foxes, is not just going to make life more difficult for hard pressed farmers, but it is going to do nothing for animal welfare either.

Like so many previous Bills introduced by the Scottish Government this one should be consigned to history before it has seen the light of day.

Colin Strang Steel, Threepwood, Galashiels.