Sir, - Joe Walsh has made a grave mistake. At the Kerrygold Horse show he said he didn't believe fox hunting was cruel but, as any right thinking member of society would agree, fox hunting is indeed cruel. What Mr Walsh fails to see as cruel is as follows: the gruelling cross country chase which sees a fox desperately running for its life; the vicious attack of the fox by a pack of specially trained killer dogs; the agonising biting, tearing, dismemberment and eventual disintegration of the struggling fox's body and perhaps most disturbing of all, the violent break-up of fox family units and savage slaughter of defenceless young fox cubs by fox hunters training their dogs.
If Mr Walsh's statement reflects not ignorance and misinformation but an actual belief that fox hunting with its integral abuse of animals and ferocious finale is not cruel, I suggest a more apt title for him might now be Minister for Agriculture, Food, Forestry and Ferocity. - Yours, etc.,
Philip Kiernan,
Mullingar, Co. Westmeath.