HYNDBURN MP Greg Pope has the courage to claim that live animal exports from Britain to Europe are cruel (LET, February 5).

But his discovery that thousands of live sheep are shipped abroad each year is nothing new.

We have a responsibility not to treat living animals as mere units of production, with profits at all costs.

Sadly, since the general election the Government's policy of meat exports being on the hook rather than the hoof has faded away. But it would stop the suffering involved in transportation of sheep to continental slaughter houses where the standards are deplorable. There really is no need for live exports.

S BRENNAN (Mrs), Bombay Street, Blackburn.