I SEE that the anti-hunting lobby is now trying to bring religion in as a weapon against fox hunting.

L Spiteri (You Say, Saturday, September 27) quotes: "God created Man in his own image, then put Man in charge of all living things."

Sorry, but there is a basic error in this statement. Man, like all living creatures, is a product of a process called evolution.

In fact, the opposite is actually nearer the truth, that is that Man created God as a means of subjugating by fear their fellow man, thus gaining control over them.

In those early times of ignorance and superstition the expression "to put the fear of God into someone" was a much-used threat in the tussle for control, although I will accept that in these more enlightened times, some people do get comfort from a belief in God.

With regard to animals and their ways, the fox, like Man, is one of the few animals that kill purely for pleasure.

I am not pro-hunting, but the fox is nothing more than cunning, vicious, loathsome vermin, particularly if you are a sheep farmer or keep chickens.

If hunting with hounds finally ceases, foxes will either be shot, poisoned or eliminated by any means available to the landowner.

Whereas a hunt may kill less than a dozen foxes in the hunting season, by these means the fox population will be decimated to the point of extinction.

I do not suppose for one minute that the anti-hunt movement has considered this. Concern for the fox has always been a secondary by-product of their protestations - my belief is that their main target has always been the huntsman.

GEOFFREY K RYLAND,

Chaddesley Corbett,

Kidderminster.