At the moment, the haphazard methods of control ensure that the fittest are killed, for example when they raid a chicken house, and the ones with mange survive.

I was most upset to see a fox cross the road recently to discover it was grey and bald in places with mange.

Fox hunting drives the foxes away from chicken coops and the fitter the fox is the more likely he is to survive. The weaker or diseased ones are killed quickly. Shooting foxes, on the other hand, leads to a slow lingering death for most of them. Hunting is the most humane way of controlling the fox population. The hunting ban should be repealed as soon as possible.

L E M Granville and Paul Bellingham,

Malvern.