IT was very depressing to see so many people marching through York city centre in support of fox hunting (April 12).

With such a lack of anti-hunt demonstrators present, it seems the House of Lords must be right to oppose a possible ban, as the public do indeed seem to be in support of cruel sports.

I sat for a half hour in the car park holding a sign saying "Ban Fox Hunts" as the marchers dispersed, where I was laughed at and called "ignorant". (I had previously tried to obstruct the path of the horses but the police didn't seem to like this.) By this point it was all too late anyway.

So during the fox hunters' Summer of Discontent, does anyone fancy organising some sort of demonstration showing that the people of Britain do actually believe that fox hunting is archaic and cruel?

George Brichieri,

York.

...I WAS surprised to read, in your coverage of the Countryside Alliance March, that York residents opposed to hunting held up protest banners along the route.

They must have been very small banners because I marched all the way round with my family and none of us saw anything of the sort.

Lots of people and drivers waved and called out their support, we heard just one chap shouting against us and I think he was only larking about. So why did a non-existent counter demonstration get front page mention?

I think the people of York are likely to be more worried about drugs, violence and lawless behaviour judging by what's in the rest of your newspaper.

For most people, town and country, hunting simply isn't an issue, all the opinion polls are moving away from support for an outright ban. You would never get more than 1,000 anti-hunt protesters to take to the streets at short notice.

Mrs SE Farmer,

Doncaster.

Updated: 10:23 Tuesday, April 16, 2002