Greg, I think the point you and many pro-hunters are either missing or conveniently ignoring isn't that it's necessarily the kill that is especially cruel, it's the method of reaching the point of killing that is so appalling.

If a farmer walks round the corner of his barn, sees a fox getting to work on his chicken-coop, and shoots it that's no problem for me, he's simply protecting his livestock. But if a band of blood-maddened horsemen with thirty or forty large dogs seek out a fox in its habitat and then chase it terrified over miles of countryside, and have the gall to claim that they're doing it for 'fun' (or even worse, as I heard some plummy-mouthed toff at the weekend claim, that they do it for the benefit of the foxes - what utter bollocks) then they must have a very perverted view of what constitutes fun.

What next? Is badger-baiting to make a welcome return? Following the logic of the hunt-supporters, maybe it should. Don't badgers carry TB or rabies or something? Dirty little bastards, let the dogs at 'em. That'll be fun and the badgers will be so grateful.