MAY I please, through your columns, say that, having seen a few seconds of hare coursing on BBC TV News recently, I cannot comprehend how anyone can support this barbarous activity.

Even now, the sight of that small defenceless animal, racing to and fro between the bared jaws of the dogs, with nowhere to go, no choice of rest or respite or escape, filled me with anguish.

This is no sport. Sport is the matching of two equal opponents; there is nothing equal in this activity, only tormentors and doomed victims.

And to see two young boys laughing and enjoying the spectacle - they who should be learning to respect and care for living creatures - what sort of men will they grow up to be? Bullies, perhaps, even worse, having no thought of suffering outside themselves!

Surely this abomination must be ended, put away with the many other shameful things in our country's past. Have we not progressed beyond such atrocity?

Ray Stafford

Lea Avenue

Crewe