Madam, – It was with disbelief and dismay that I read Michael Parsons’s article (Home News, January 6th) stating that the Department of Agriculture awarded monetary prizes to the gun clubs that killed the most grey squirrels. In addition to the barbaric activities of hare coursing, stag hunting and fur and factory farming, those who enjoy the torture and killing of animals are now to have the added excitement of legally shooting grey squirrels.
Not only were gun club members able to experience the pleasures of the kill, but our Government awarded them prizes from taxpayers’ money for this barbaric activity.
Soon our country will be entirely denuded of wildlife. One can only hope that before that happens, the present pack of incompetent, arrogant and uncaring Government politicians, along with their advisers, will also have been sent packing into a wilderness from which they will not emerge for many years. – Yours, etc,