Human’s are fish too…

Don’t kill fish says Ms Tricker (D&S Letters 120610) – A somewhat emotive cry from a person professing unstinting ‘concern for all living creatures’, but who probably has little or no knowledge about angling… Probably still the largest singular participation pastime in the UK, if not the world.

I have no wish to suggest Ms Tricker is not entitled to an opinion; nothing could be further from reality. Neither would I adopt the stereotypical assumption that she could be; a climate change warrior, green this, anti that, strict vegetarian, or even just the kind of person who moved to a rural location to share the benefits of her city experience with us, and thereby help to educate the simple country folk. I could be forgiven for thinking this way as, unfortunately there has been a proliferation of these types. However, I will assume the kindly lady’s concern for the fish is born out of ignorance.

In freshwater fishing or ‘coarse angling’ fish are never killed, they are returned to the water alive after capture. Exceptions are where they are captured for food (illegally) by gangs of eastern European (illegal) immigrants or, ‘fly fishing’ for trout and salmon, where strict limits are imposed on those who may wish to cook and eat what they have caught.

The only other exception is sea angling where you can also take, cook and eat the fish you have caught (subject to size limit). That is always assuming there’s something left to catch, after the waters around our coasts are failed by the ludicrous and illogical quota system, not to mention the pillaging carried out by foreign trawlers however, that’s another story.

I am surprised that anyone would want to question the validity of a structure put in place to support the wellbeing of soldiers. Troops that are fighting and dying almost every day, simply to secure Ms Tricker’s right to freedom of speech and opinion. To suggest that funds would be better used to train soldiers how to kill people, as opposed to ‘defenseless animals’, blows here genuine ‘care’ argument out of the water somewhat…

However, she probably doesn’t agree with that either?