How can you possibly equate the shooting of game birds with fox hunting? (WMN letters “RSPB should take a stand on shooting”) Game birds are shot to eat; it is a quick dispatch and the RSPB is quite right to leave shooting alone and focus on the protection of wild birds, particularly those threatened by loss of habitat.

I wouldn’t shoot any bird myself, and my Labrador won’t retrieve – he picks up the bird and runs off with it – but I wouldn’t say no to a brace of pan seared young hen pheasants, marinated in bruised fresh rosemary, lemon juice, olive oil and garlic, and oven roasted for 20 minutes. Yummy. It would be a tad hypocritical if I sneered at the cruelty of the guy who shot them. Only folk who have never eaten pheasant are qualified to do that. Apart from that one of our better village hotels is used regularly at this time of year by groups of game shooters who set off early in the morning wearing their plus fours and brightly coloured socks, driving off in convoys of Range Rovers. They keep the chef, kitchen staff, chambermaids and waitresses – all local people – in work during the winter months and if it weren’t for the shooters the staff would be struggling to get by on £26,000 of welfare benefits at the taxpayers expense. Or more if Anglican bishops have their way.

Martin Bell, Port Isaac