Sir, For centuries the sheep farmers of the Lake District have used hounds as their main way of keeping the local fox population under control. This is a system that has obviously worked well over the years.

The fell packs account for some six to seven hundred foxes each year. As it tends to be the fitter healthier foxes that escape the hounds, hunting allows for the maintenance of a fit, healthy, controlled fox population.

If the hunting ban comes into force, these numbers will have to be maintained, as the countryside could not cope with an uncontrolled fox population, the fox having no natural predator.

Perhaps the opponents of hunting and the lovers of foxes would like to dwell for a moment upon the realities of alternative methods of fox control.

By far the widest used is shooting which offers a very quick end. It must, however, be borne in mind that shooting is totally indiscriminate.

Experiences in Scotland, where most of the hunts still operate as gun packs, show that although the kill rate has doubled following the Scottish ban on traditional hunting, there is no natural selection and a lot of the foxes being killed are the fit, healthy ones which would previously have escaped the hounds.

Shooting does not offer a lot of hope for the long-term future of the fox population.

It must also be borne in mind that there is a wounding rate of over 30 per cent, which will lead more foxes to suffer a slow agonising death, be they fit or weak, pregnant or nursing.

The other alternative methods of control are all too horrendous to contemplate. Poisoning, gassing and trapping are totally indiscriminate and will all lead to horrendous levels of pain and suffering, not only among foxes, but any other species that happens by, including the family pooch exercising in the woods or on the fells.

Hunting is the natural way of controlling foxes. It offers a very quick end and the only side effects for a fox that escapes is tiredness.

It offers no risks at all to other species or the safety of the thousands of walkers using the fells. The ban on hunting will not save the life of a single fox but it will condemn many more to die slow agonising deaths.

Mr Blair and his minions at DEFRA are either unable or unwilling to give advice on their preferred alternatives of fox control once hunting has been banned.

Neil Salisbury Hawkshead Hill