Letter: Hunt angers country people too

Sir: The humane decision of the National Trust to ban stag-hunting on its land puts to shame the Church of England, one of the biggest land- owners in the country, which still refuses to ban it.

Church House has just told me that "the Church Commissioners leave it up to the conscience of the individual tenant of the land as to whether they allow hunting on it". In other words, the matter of rent comes before animal welfare.

So while congregations all over the UK sing the praises of "all creatures great and small", an innocent animal is being hunted to death outside on church land - with ecclesiastical permission.

GEORGE McMILLAN

Westcliff-on-Sea,

Essex