Welcome, John but hunting means pain

SOME OF US HAVE long appreciated John Gummer's friendship to God's earth despite his prominence in a Tory cabinet which approved the wildlifeand habitatdestructive Manchester Airport extension.
It was disappointing therefore to read his commitment to field sports. Whether foxes must be controlled by killing in this crowded island only specialists can say. Certainly grey squirrels, unwisely introduced by our own species, now must be. But squirrels and foxes must be treated with compassion by people as befits God's representatives on His earth. To approve of foxes being killed by people enjoying the chase, the attack, the terrified death, is simply wrong. The hunt is cruel to the animals for which under God we are responsible; such infliction of pain demeans ourselves as a society. If we do not revere life beneath fur, neither will we defend prenatal or terminal human life. Wiser and more compassionate than the words of John Gummer are those of John Muir: "All are our brothers and they enjoy life as we do,. share Heaven's blessings with us, die and are buried in hallowed ground, come with us out of eternity and return into eternity."
John Gummer is welcome aboard the small but growing Catholic green movement. His complacency about the killing of other creatures for enjoyment is not.
Dr Edward P Echlin Bexhill, W Sussex IT WAS HEARTENING to read on the front page of the Catholic Herald that the annual bull run at Pamplona was interrupted when the Bishops joined against the Basque separatist ETA campaign of violence and the brutal murder of a local politi cian. This sickening murder has obviously struck the hearts of the Spanish people• and whilst I would not wish to detract from this in any way... I feel I must make some comment about the annual bull run in Pamplona.
This annual bull run is, in itself, a cruel and unnecessary practice against God's creatures and is carried out in the name of the Catholic Church.
The bull run of Pamplona is just one example of the many Spanish fiestas when animals are tormented a Catholic fiestas.
Isn't it time that the leader
of the Catholic Church als condemned the torment c
God's innocent creatures these fiestas and set an exarr pie as to how we should exec cise our stewardship creation with compassion an responsibility.
Wanda Oberman Wantage, Oxfordshire