Sadly, in the final sentence of his otherwise excellent article, George Monbiot succumbs to the use of the word “sport” (Britain’s pheasant shooting season has begun. And a year-round massacre makes it possible, 6 October). Someone once said that for something to be considered a sport, all parties should be willing participants, which the game birds quite plainly are not.
Dr John Davies
Kirkby-in-Cleveland, North Yorkshire
• For a few weeks we’ve had three females and one scrawny juvenile male pheasant visiting our garden and helping themselves to bird food. The father occasionally visits, squawking loudly to notify us of his presence. They are a pleasure to watch and I’m glad to have given them a safe haven, if only for a while, from their wanton destruction and treatment in the name of “sport”. Now, if only I could keep them away from the main road.
Anne Twynam
Shifnal, Shropshire
• Remains of the Tree of Tenéré (Letters, 6 October) are in the Musée National Boubou Hama in Niamey, the capital of Niger. The map I bought there in the late 1970s was marked with a place where the special tree used to be.
Peter Bottomley MP
Conservative, Worthing West
• I can cope with the extraneous noise from hearing aids (Hearing aids opened my ears to a new world of sounds. Then I quit wearing them, 2 October), but what drives me mad is the sound of my own voice. It bores me silly.
Brian Saperia
Harrow, Greater London
• Won’t it be a hoot if the absurdly blimpish Telegraph is bought by a German media company (Bild publisher Axel Springer eyes Telegraph auction, 1 October)?
David Head
Peterborough
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