SO the conclusion has been reached that two beagle puppies stolen just days before the season opening of the Vale of Aylesbury hunt (Bucks Free Press, Princes Risborough News November 5) were probably taken by animal rights activists.

Then the line went that thus, because hunters love to propagate the fiction that anyone who is against hunting must, per se, be an urbanite, the poor pups will be moved around in an urban environment that they are not suited to.

Is it not incredible that now, just as we are on the brink of finally getting a ban on hunting with hounds, hunters and breeders are not in any way winding down their despised sporting activities, but are actively engaged in the breeding of dogs that will according to the hunters be unfit for re-homing and, therefore, these pups, still by then young dogs, will be subject to as near as possible public execution in order to ring as much pathos out of the situation as possible.

Incidentally, all dogs are essentially pack animals and it has been well documented that beagles bred for hunting are no different from other breeds and adapt happily to normal domestic life as family pets.

Their generally compliant nature has also, sadly, led to their use in research laboratories.

Genuine animal lovers feel just as much for the hunted hare that these pups were being bred to chase and kill, for the entertainment of their human masters, as we do for all domestic and wild animals.

Bea Bradley Cuxham Road Watlington