Sir.-I see the Vyne and Craven Hunt will be joining a protest against the proposed Government ban on hunting with hounds next month.

I also note their "declaration of non co-operation with any ban", meaning - presumably - their intention to break the law.

Shouldn't those who torment and kill our wildlife for "sport", who have pledged to break the law, be finding something more important to break the law for?

After all, I'd hate to see a fox putting any of them behind bars.

Why don't they think about breaking the law to draw attention to the plight of nurses' pay - after all, the Countryside Alliance uses a nurse in its advert?

Perhaps this isn't quite so important as your right to kill wildlife and I wonder, too, what nurses feel about their image being used to support hunting?

Mr Mackenzie arrogantly says a proposed ban would be "flying in the face of what ordinary people think".

Well, Mr Mackenzie, MPs - the majority who want a total ban - were voted for by ordinary people (and nurses) who want to see an end to cruelty and suffering, so get over it and move on.

Perhaps some sensible advice for hunts right now - knowing a ban is ever closer - would be not to breed more hounds for future seasons as surplus hounds and those not making the "grade" have always been effortlessly destroyed by hunts.

Furthermore, there should be no cub hunting to train new hounds to hunt foxes and existing hounds should be re-trained to drag hunt, thereby harming no wild animal and preventing local hunt supporters ending up in a police cell - unless, of course, it's for nurses' pay or another worthy cause.

-Marcia Guess, Action For Animals, Basingstoke.