Understanding
the cruelty issue
No doubt many of my readers will have seen the recent discussion on the
television about a big group of so-called animal rights demonstrators
who disrupted the enjoyment of some anglers at Bank House fishery as they
quite legitimately indulged in fly fishing for trout.
Baseball bats were used against the anglers and assaults took place including
violence to a lady angler.
Now anyone is entitled to his own views about field sports, but nobody
is entitled to indulge in disruption and violence against anyone who is
pursuing his hobby quite lawfully.
Being so interested in angling I feel certain that the few people who
think our sport is cruel do not understand the true facts of the matter.
Understand this: If angling for trout was banned then very soon there
would not be any trout in English waters.
Without the keepers, who are paid for by anglers, poachers would very
quickly wipe out wild trout stocks, and nobody would buy trout from fish
farms to stock fisheries with.
Make no mistake about it, unless you are a vegetarian it is completely
illogical to oppose angling for trout on the grounds of supposed cruelty.
When anglers intend to take a few trout home to eat they use an instrument
called a priest to instantly kill the fish with a sharp blow to the back
of the head.
So much better than the slow death suffered by trout that are sold in
supermarkets for food and which die slowly and cruelly.
And trout bought to stock fisheries are in the main of better eating quality
than those reared just for food.
And by the way poachers are cruel. They are not to be admired in any way.
In my experience I have known poachers to pinch fish to sell to supplement
their state handouts.
I cannot deny that I have occasionally witnessed cruel behaviour by young
anglers or novice anglers, and we more experienced anglers must do all
that we can to stop this happening.
One simple thing that anglers can do to avoid cruelty is to make sure
that they never touch with a dry hand any fish that is to be returned
to the water.
This does expose the fish to a slow death though I do see anglers swinging
small fish straight into a dry hand.
It is so easy to avoid this by keeping a wet sponge by your side to wet
your hand on before touching a fish that is to be returned to the water.