PETA?s nuts in the nutcracker

Remember our friends PETA, who decided to have a pop at us anglers a few years back? Well, you?ll be delighted to know that in the US, thanks to a robust attempt to counter the animal rights movement by a pressure group called the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF), PETA are coming under some serious pressure following revelations that they?ve been killing many of the unwanted or uncared for animals donated to them. PETA as we know have a multi million dollar annual budget some of which could have been spent on caring for these creatures, but they chose to euthanase them. See the story at www.petakillsanimals.com and /or the CCF website at
http://www.consumerfreedom.com/

For those of you who are interested in the phenomenon of animal rights, and what drives the fanatical supporters of this cause, can I recommend a US website/blog called Animal Crackers, that is updated on an almost daily basis by its author, Brian O?Connor. Brian is a retired Professor of Anatomy and Cell Biology who is fascinated by the whole animal rights business. He?s always very thoughtful in his posts (which include commentary on developments in the UK).

Brian?s site/blog is at http://brianoconnor.typepad.com/animal_crackers/2005/06/alf_attempts_to.html. Previous posts are accessible via the column on the left.

hypocrits the lot of em,just like the rspca,lacs and the hunt saboteurs(in my opinion)

RSPCA

Is the first word royal?

How ironic, that the Queen should give her seal to the organisation that goes far far further than banning her son's sport.

Dave
That is brilliant news and well done for bringing it to our attention and hope you dont mind if i use the info you have provided

I'm delighted that it's been of interest. PeTA employeees have now been nicked dumping unwanted pet carcases, so the story is moving on. Go to the websites for updates.

exactly ric.in my opinion,the rspca are as anti fishing as the other organisations,they just won`t admit it.i`ve also heard that 80% of donations raised goes towards admin costs,eg,ex lib dem mp,anti hunt protesting jackie ballard is alleged to recieve 80 thousand a year salary as head of the rspca.they won`t get a penny from me,never have,never will!!!!!!!!!!!

I am not so sure about this attack on the RSPCA is justified. They have done excellent work over the years in all area of animal welfare.

With respect to the fact that they are anti-angling, but will not admit it. They are really caught between a rock and a hard place.

I doubt they could come out in complete "support" for angling for a number of reasons, and I am guessing they would be -

* the fragmented nature of angling means there is no one representative body/voice
* across the various angling bodies there exists a wide variety of views and opinions (e.g. barbed/non barbed, keepnets or not, stcoking of non native fish or not...and many more).
* when anglers themselves treat the local environment with contempt, just go onto the thread about litter and whitness people's examples, of which I can share many, how do you expect them to support that sort of behavoir?
* there still exists no absolute, 100% proof that fish do not feel pain.

I think it near impossible for them to support angling unequivocally given these circumstances, however it doesn't mean that as anglers we should not enter into debate with them.

when interviewed about bird injuries due to lost tackle,the rspca never say that tackle can be sometimes accidentally lost,or that anglers who leave litter are a minority.they like to blacken all our names by making statements such as:these injuries are due to anglers leaving discarded tackle on the banks etc etc,which results in joe public spouting crap such as,i wish all these fishermen would take their wire home with them.i wonder,where do they get the term "wire" from,when describing line?checkout pet rescue and wildlife sos on sky and it`s plain to see

Many people consider all footballers, and supporters, yobs. Are they all like that? No, but there is a widespread view, including many papers, that this is the case.

What do you expect the RSPCA to say "ah, dont worry, its only a few of them causing these birds harm".

So long as a minority do these things angling will suffer, and the RSPCA will have no option than to sit on the fence, which they should anyway because their role is, in some part, to police animal welfare.

And personally I think we kid ourselves when we say its a "small minority". I see it everywhere, including private waters, and do not feel its a small minority.

no i don`t expect them to say "ah don`t worry it`s only a few of them doing harm",i expect a statement that doesn`t tar us all with the same brush.as for sitting on the fence,do you feel that misrepresenting anglers by insinuating that we all leave discarded tackle is any different than misrepresnting footballers and fans by branding them all yobs?
believe me mate,if angling ever becomes "unacceptable"with joe public,as hunting did and shooting is starting to,the rspca will be at the forefront of the anti angling debate.

see the thread about the alf.an awful lot of rspca workers have the same views about angling and shooting.
that`s the end of my discussion on this thread,i have my views and i`m sticking to them.

Read Barrie Rickard's views on the RSPCA:

Here

And here

And here

More here

thanks for putting the links on graham.i rest my case re the rspca and jackie ballard.she was the libdem mp for taunton,which is fairly close to where i am.as far as i`m concerned,she did kiss bum f*** all for the local,apart from whinge and whine about field sports.luckily,she lost the last election,good riddance i say.
barry rickards has got to be one of the most knowledgable anglers in britain and i`m glad that most of his views are the same as mine(and most others no doubt)