Writer warns trail hunting ban part of wider vegan attack on animals - your letters, plus a February 1947 Walsall coal rush throwback
Readers take aim at a vegan-driven hunt ban, set the record straight on Darwin’s Beagle voyage, and lament Coronation Street’s lost charm.
You can enjoy other pictures from the past and more with our weekly FREE Nostalgia Newsletter - with scores of archive pictures and exclusive features on the history of Wolverhampton, Staffordshire and the Black Country - all sent to your inbox every Friday. Sign up here
Why we must fight hunt ban
With the greatest respect to Mark Pritchard, he does not understand what we are really up against with the proposed ban on trail hunting.
The people behind this proposed legislation are not ordinary animal lovers, in fact they have very little or nothing to do with animals. They are the fanatic vegans. They eat no animal product including honey, they wear no animal product including wool and silk and they believe all human-animal contact is exploitation of animals.
They have been going since the early 19th century and they are on a roll now. In 1854 they brought about an act banning draught dogs. This resulted in the immediate destruction of 70,000 dogs.
They do not care. They do not love animals, in fact they know very little about them. But they do not want you or I or any reader of the Star to have a dog, a cat, a horse, a budgerigar or a goldfish and they want us to stop eating any animal product. They want to ban zoos, circuses and guide-dogs for the blind.
They remain largely hidden, but they have money and a fanatical, even religious zeal to bring about what they believe is right. We must fight them.
Stephen Maxfield, Midlands
Point made on HMS Beagle
Darwin did not commission HMS Beagle and neither did he have a say in any refitting. His friend Rev. John Henslow recommended his as a naturalist and companion to Captain James Fitzroy on the HMS Beagle expedition to the Southern hemisphere commissioned by the Admiralty.
Peter Begg, Shrewsbury
