https://www.mahohboh.org/an-open-letter-to-iol-by-john-nash/
Dear IOL
Your article, “UK hunt club slammed for trophy-hunting safari auction in South Africa”. by Shaun Smillie (October 29) contained a number of misleading statements.
You describe the Avon Vale Hunt as “A fox hunting club in the United Kingdom”. Fox hunting with hounds has been illegal in the UK for a number of years. The Avon Vale Hunt preserves and celebrates the tradition of hunting with hounds by trail hunting – exercising riders and dogs by following an artificial scent laid down earlier by a human being. It is a perfectly legal pastime. It follows that the statement, “are dedicated to stopping the Avon Vale huntsmen and women when they head out with horses and hounds in pursuit of foxes” is false news.
Of course, you cannot ban the hunting of UK foxes because they are an agricultural and urban pest. Every day we kill 1000 foxes in the UK – 2000 a week are shot, 80 a day are snared, Lord knows how many are poisoned or gassed with vehicle exhaust because hunting with dogs is banned, and, ironically another 300 are run over EVERY DAY, many by animal lovers in the their cars. Banning the hunting of foxes with hounds merely turned a much-admired quarry – about 20,000 were once taken by foxhounds – into a common agricultural pest.
Continue....

Dear IOL
Your article, “UK hunt club slammed for trophy-hunting safari auction in South Africa”. by Shaun Smillie (October 29) contained a number of misleading statements.
You describe the Avon Vale Hunt as “A fox hunting club in the United Kingdom”. Fox hunting with hounds has been illegal in the UK for a number of years. The Avon Vale Hunt preserves and celebrates the tradition of hunting with hounds by trail hunting – exercising riders and dogs by following an artificial scent laid down earlier by a human being. It is a perfectly legal pastime. It follows that the statement, “are dedicated to stopping the Avon Vale huntsmen and women when they head out with horses and hounds in pursuit of foxes” is false news.
Of course, you cannot ban the hunting of UK foxes because they are an agricultural and urban pest. Every day we kill 1000 foxes in the UK – 2000 a week are shot, 80 a day are snared, Lord knows how many are poisoned or gassed with vehicle exhaust because hunting with dogs is banned, and, ironically another 300 are run over EVERY DAY, many by animal lovers in the their cars. Banning the hunting of foxes with hounds merely turned a much-admired quarry – about 20,000 were once taken by foxhounds – into a common agricultural pest.
Continue....