RSPCA’s fishing code of practice
Many years
ago I became rather annoyed when some members and representatives of the RSPCA
began voicing their views about the cruelty element of angling.
I knew quite well that the anglers who I knew well hated cruelty at least as much
as non-anglers did and that in fact anglers did more than most people to actually
avoid cruelty because we alone put money and effort into fighting water pollution,
which is really cruel to fish, and to employing keepers to try and control poachers
who truely are cruel to the fish they steal.
I pointed out that several fishing tackle shops had collecting tins on the counter
for anglers to drop money into in aid of the RSPCA and as a result, most of the
collecting tins were removed from the shop counters.
Our hobby is like some other activities, including keeping pets such as horses
and dogs.
It is not the pet keeping that is cruel so much as the small minority of people
who keep pets and go fishing in a cruel way.
Wanting to learn whether the attitude of th RSPCA was still anti-angling, I wrote
to the organisation asking whether they now had a different opinion of anglers
or not.
Having now received a well thought out reply from Rebecca Jones, the organisation’s
enquiries co-ordinator, I am much reassured about the current situation.
Their main concern is about the infliction of pain on animals, including fish.
They are concerned by the findings of the Medway Report that is supposed to prove
that angling causes pain to fish, whereas regular anglers have seen a lot of evidence
that this is not the case.
There is a code of practice put together by the RSPCA that suggest ways of avoiding
suffering in fish populations by either unhooking fish that we catch humanely
and releasing them quickly back into the water, or in the case of game fish, we
kill them quickly and painlessly.
I find that very nearly all anglers carry out this code of practice.