DOROTHY FUDGE (Letters, March 7) should not create a smokescreen around currently-rumoured attempts to re-legislate hunting with dogs by misrepresenting them as having cross-party support.

It is overwhelmingly Conservative MPs who want to change the law, to help law-breaking hunters.

The only cross-party aspect is that 82% of the British public supports the ban on hunting, including even a majority of Conservative voters. Conservative MPs are out on a limb by ignoring the views of the public majority, because hunting is a fetish of David Cameron’s supporting MPs on this issue.

As for the Burns Report mentioned by Mrs Fudge, it stated clearly that hunting “seriously compromises” the welfare of hunted animals. It could hardly be otherwise, when packs of dogs are set to chase and terrorise foxes, hares and deer until too exhausted to carry on. That is why people need to write to their MPs (even just addressed as MP for wherever) particularly if they have Conservative MPs tempted to support this quietly.

SHEILA CLAYTON, Southampton United Animal Charities.