Sir, - The scare over Weil's Disease has focused much public attention on the threat posed by rats to human health. But if we let nature take its course, these deadly rodents would not be quite so prevalent.
While spending millions of pounds on chemical pest control, we persecute the very creatures that keep rats at bay. It has to be significant that plagues of rats appear in areas where hunting has wiped out the local fox populations.
Misguided "sports-people" are contributing directly to the upsurge in rat numbers in town and country and indirectly to the spread of Weil's Disease. And yet they claim to be performing a service to farmers. In fact, they have caused a major ecological imbalance and played into the hands of Mr Rat.
Instead of chasing foxes, why don't they set up rat hunts? They could still blow their horns and gallop with their packs of hounds. Only the quarry would have changed.
But the same people would enjoy the hunt. Bank managers, auctioneers, judges and social climbers could dress up in pink jackets, riding breeches and jodhpurs and scream "Tally-ho!" as they pursued rats over difficult terrain. They would, of course, have to shower after each hunt, as sewers can be rather smelly and unhygienic at the best of times.
But the discomfort of wading through raw sewage would be more than off-set by the thrill of the chase. That, after all, is what hunting is all about. It's not so much the idea of killing your quarry. It's the sheer pleasure of giving it a run for its money. - Yours, etc.,
John Fitzgerald, Callan, Co Kilkenny.