Letter: Hunting is no crime

Sir: To oppose hunting is not the same as wishing to see hunters criminalised (leading article, 10 July). I thought we had recognised the immorality of trying to impose our own values on "uncivilised" people at about the same time that we stopped colonising them.

Those who cite paedophilia as an example of how an unacceptable minority should be treated miss the point (letters, 13 July). In a free society, nothing should be banned unless it causes grave harm to people. By this definition, paedophilia should indeed be banned, but hunting shouldn't.

I look forward to seeing animal rights groups deploying their facile arguments against coarse fishing, halal butchery and rat-catching.

ALASDAIR MITCHELL

Stocksfield, Northumberland