The following notes have been largely collated from the publishers’ publicity materials. A Report or full Review may appear in a subsequent issue of Animal Welfare.

Sir, Leg-hold traps are the devices most commonly used by researchers to capture wolves. These traps can cause injury, as they cannot usually be monitored closely enough to prevent captured animals from struggling in them. In areas where guard dogs are not used, typical methods for controlling wolf predation on livestock are culling and building substantial or electric fences to exclude wolves. These methods have two major drawbacks - culling can threaten the population, and conventional fences are expensive and difficult to maintain.

Sir, I have read Prof Broom's article in Animal Welfare 1999, 8: 205-228 in which he reviews the welfare of farmed mink.

Sir, Dr Hansen claims that our review paper The Welfare of Farmed Mink in Relation to Housing and Management: A Review selectively presents results from the scientific literature. He is correct, in writing our review we have been very selective about the results and conclusions we have included. This was necessary because many of the publications in this field do not give sufficient detail to enable the reader to judge how results were produced, and whether all of the conclusions reached are justified. While it is possible that these studies were concluded in the best scientific manner, they are not well reported in a way which does justice to this position. We have intentionally included only those findings which we believe have been demonstrated to be valid. The conclusions which we draw may not accord with the knowledge or opinion of all of those who have worked in this field, rather they accord with the body of results demonstrated in the available literature.