IN reply to the letter from pro-hunting Peter Janes may I point out that a new MORI poll signals strong support for a hunting ban, with 76 per cent saying it should not be legal.

The poll, commissioned by Campaigning to Protect Hunted Animals (CPHA) showed 82 per cent of the public believe deer hunting should not be legal; 69 per cent against fox hunting and 77 per cent against hare hunting and coursing. That's a 76 per cent average.

These new MORI figures show support for a ban on hunting with dogs is strong, despite misleading rhetoric and questionable polling from the pro-hunting camp.

MORI interviewed 1,000 adults aged 15-plus by telephone between November 14-16.

Results are weighted to the national adult population profile.

The poll widely publicised by the pro-hunt Countryside Alliance has been heavily criticised by independent marketing experts for having "flawed logic, ambiguity and potentially biased wording" and recommended its results should be "discounted as measures of public opinion".

The Countryside Alliance claims that the results of its poll prove that 59 per cent want to keep hunting, but the question used to arrive at this figure was ambiguous.

As for the writer's reference to the members of the League Against Cruel Sports who resigned that took place nearly 20 years ago!

Finally, my reason for anonymity? Because there are others in the pro-hunting lobby, the extremists, who might resort to intimidation and violence to further this barbaric activity.

Name and address supplied