New antis letter writing campaign

Nottingham Evening Post 4.8.05
THIS HOBBY CAUSES PAIN, SUFFERING AND DAMAGE
12:00 - 04 August 2005
I was very concerned to see that the Environment Agency is encouraging angling as a pastime.
Surely people can think of more productive things to do with their spare time than to cause physical harm and suffering to fish and destroy our riversides in the process? Many people think that fish don't feel pain, but this is untrue.
Fish are vertebrates, with a brain, a central nervous system and pain receptors all over their bodies, including the lips.
As with mammals, it is a biological necessity to feel pain. Scientific research from around the world substantiates this, as reported by the Government's very own official advisory body on farmed animal welfare.
Fish start to suffocate out of water and their gills may collapse and bleed. Even if the fish are returned handling by the anglers removes the invisible outer mucus layer, which provides waterproofing leaving the fish open to infection.
I am surprised that this is something the Environment Agency condones when hooks and nylon line is regularly lost or discarded, with deadly consequences for wildlife. Litter is also left behind, including jagged bait cans.
With the school holidays upon us I urge your readers to encourage their children to take up a cruelty-free activity for the summer.
KELLY SLADE Campaigns Officer, Animal Aid Bradford Street Tonbridge, Kent
http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/d...yContent&sourceNode=134095&contentPK=12946747

also in the Yorkshire Post 4.8.05

and the Bath Chronicle 4.8.05

more to come, I suspect

This is why FISHINGmagic is promoting -

the FISHINGmagic JUNIOR TEACH-IN

Because we disagree with idiots like that.

Angling promotes good social behavour in kids. Hardly ever will true anglers turn out to be thieves, muggers, pensioner-beaters, or other sorts of villian. It's a good wholesome sport and passtime that promotes a real interest in nature and care for the riverside and environment.

How much effort, I wonder, has the writer of that letter put in to real environmental issues?

Answers on the back of a stamp.

Well said Woody.

Who do these people expect the EA to support as through the sale of rod licences we fund them.

I have had a look on there web site and all i could find related to fishing was a report from 2001 and guess what thats were the info for her letter came. I mean if they can't even keep upto date with current reasurce who do they think they will influence.

Report

i`ll keep a watch on my local papers` letter page.

Animal Aid are a very well-funded and unpleasant organisation. However, angling comes well down their list of priorities, so I would see this as space-filler for them, not the start of any serious campaign.
Certainly a letter or two in response to the same papers (from anglers) would not go amiss!

This is the governments thoughts on angling ....

ANGLING and LABOUR

I must admit that the antis and vegetarians etc. do have a point--- animals DO have their place.

.....its on your plate next to the mashed potato or chips ......

I have draughted a letter to send to the Notts Evening Post. Do you think it passes muster before I submit it?

Dear Sirs,

I was dismayed to see the obvious lack of understanding and research into angling by Kelly Slade who's anti angling letter you published on the eighth of August this year.

Many people have different and varied hobbies all of which have merit to that particular person, personally I find fishing gives me both time to relax and time to think. It is a sport which when taken seriously promotes problem solving skills, encourages social interaction and, contrary to Ms Slade?s point of view, awareness of conservation issues.

Any true angler will confirm that we are equally disgusted by litter and discarded tackle, fortunately, in my experience, the people who do leave litter behind are in the minority. I myself will take home any litter I find around the areas I fish in and I know that every other angler I know would and does do the same. As with any activity or sport there will always be a few who's actions begin to spoil it for the majority, look at football hooligans for an example.

The Environment Agency, as Ms Slade is probably well aware, is funded partially by the sale of anglers rod licences and also relies on the information from anglers and other members of the public in relation to any incidents of water pollution. One of the main reasons that the quality and cleanliness of our inland waterways has improved so much over the last few decades is through pressure from angling clubs and individuals to crack down on companies responsible for the pollutants. True anglers are genuinely concerned about our countries environment.

The Government also realises the benefits angling offers the community, it is Britain?s most popular participation sport with over 3.8 million people taking part and contributing an estimated 3 billion pounds or more to the economy each year. As I stated earlier angling has been shown to promote social inclusion and an increase in environmental awareness amongst youngsters and adults. The website 'www.fishingmagic.com' promotes safe and successful angling with outstanding advice for people at any level and also encourages people entering the sport to do so responsibly. To this end they are organising, as part of the national fishing week, the 'FISHINGmagic Junior Teach-in' on the 24th of August this year in Buckinghamshire. It is open to Children aged 8 - 16 years inclusive, in particular those who have never fished before and of course any other family members who wish to lend them a helping hand. You can find more details and apply for a place on the day at 'www.fishingmagic.com' then click on the Junior Teach-in link under the 'FM Hot-Spots' banner.

I thank you for your time and would urge your readers to encourage their children to take up a fantastic and beneficial pastime this summer, GO FISHING.

Yours Faithfully, Paul Howarth, Derby.

Nice, Paul, but I'd cut it down to half if you can, try and match it to the average length of letters on their letters page, so you do the editing rather than they. This ensures your points come across and not what they want to print (or take out).

Might be worth mentioning that "scientific evidence" is still unproven, introducing poisons to animals (bee-venom injected into fishes lips) is proof only of a reaction of body chemistry to toxins, not pain receptors. Put their arguments on to the back foot.

What do you think?

That is one beautiful letter Paulio.

Very nicely worded and points clearly and well put.

One little change - "True anglers are genuinely concerned about our countries environment."

"countries" is plural, you should write "country's" - singular posessive.

That's all - brilliant htough and thanks for the plug about the Teach-in.

Paul,

The difficult bit is to demolish the "fish feel pain" part.

The reference is to the Roslin Institute report that attempted to prove that nociception "detectors of noxious stimuli" equated to pain reception. It did this by causing interference with motor nerve function using bee venom.

I have been in contact with Professor James Rose on a variety of related topics, and it is clear that the whole topic is complex.

But these are proven facts:

1. Fish lack that part of the brain that experiences pain and emotion. This is the neocortex.
2. The Roslin Institute report did not prove neurophysiological effects in their experiments ie they couldn't prove anything happened in the fishes' brains. Their conclusions were far from proof; instead they relied on inference of similarity with primate nociception. The report was fundamentally flawed in that no reference was made to neurophysiological research such as that made by Professor Rose.
3. The presence of vertebrae, brains, cold/warm blooded, nociception do not prove ability to feel pain or emotions. Some scientists believe that birds lack this ability as well; they also have simple brains.
4. Our brains are complex; fishes brains are simple, ie the construction is entirely different.
5. Fish are not conscious in the way that we are. They learn and react in an unconscious manner. We do this ourselves some of the time, but it is difficult to imagine how fish think.
6. Fish have not evolved to feel pain. It offers them no advantage. Fish reproduction is based on "if a cod lays a million eggs, and two survive to breed" then survival of the species is possible. Therefore most offspring, even 99.9999% will perish before breeding. With mammals, the survival rate has to be much, much higher, possibly over 50%, and pain avoidance aids survival.

I have two reference books by Alexander Shwaub on this. There is also material on this site if you dig deeper.

Email me if you want to check out anything.

Yes Woody you are quite right, a simple grammatical error I should have spotted, oops, and thanks for the complimentary review.

Mark, I didn't approach the 'pain' issue as I didn't feel I knew enough to make any comment however I shall now 'edit' my master piece, ahem, and include some of those points you have illustrated.

Thanks again all, I'll submit the finished article on here asap.

Good the way you brought the governments points in (as per their reply to me)--as these are facts ......

Good show Paulio. It'll depend on the differing newspaper editors as to how much of your letter will get printed though. At best they'll cut it down so as Simon suggests you probably need to condense it a bit but don't lose any of the salient points. Not easy but then this whole anti-anti issue isn't either is it?


It would be nice to see the EA checking up on thse newspapers and putting over their viewpoint - in the minds of the unitiated the words of a large government body might carry a fair amount of clout as opposed to what they might consider are our 'selfish' letters?

I have amended the letter to include some points about the pain issue however I seem unable to condense the word count any more.

If anyone has any suggestions I would be grateful otherwise I shall e.mail it as is to the paper or papers in question tomorrow morning.

Thanks, Paul(io).

Dear Sirs,
I was dismayed to see the obvious lack of understanding and research into angling by Kelly Slade whose anti angling letter you published on the eighth of August this year.
Many people have different and varied hobbies all of which have merit to that particular person, personally I find fishing gives me both time to relax and time to think. It is a sport which when taken seriously promotes problem solving skills, encourages social interaction and, contrary to Ms Slade's point of view, awareness of conservation issues.
Any true angler will confirm that we are equally disgusted by litter and discarded tackle, fortunately, in my experience; the people guilty of this are in the minority. I and every other angler I know take home any litter we may find. As with any activity or sport there will always be a few whose actions begin to spoil it for the majority, look at football hooligans for an example.
The report Ms Slade refers to regarding fish feeling pain was actually seriously flawed in that it made no reference to neurophysiological research which proved that fish?s brains are substantially different to those of mammals. For example the part of the brain which experiences pain and emotion is not present in fish. The report could not prove any neurophysiological effects i.e. they could not prove anything happened in the fish?s brains.
The Environment Agency, as Ms Slade is probably well aware, is funded partially by the sale of anglers? rod licences and also relies on the information from anglers and other members of the public in relation to any incidents of water pollution. One of the main reasons that the quality and cleanliness of our inland waterways has improved so much over the last few decades is through pressure from angling clubs and individuals to crack down on companies responsible for the pollutants. True anglers are genuinely concerned about our country?s environment.
The Government also realises the benefits angling offers the community, it is Britain's most popular participation sport with over 3.8 million people taking part and contributing an estimated 3 billion pounds or more to the economy each year. As stated earlier angling has been shown to promote social inclusion and an increase in environmental awareness amongst youngsters and adults. The website 'www.fishingmagic.com' promotes safe and successful angling with outstanding advice for people at any level and also encourages people entering the sport to do so responsibly. To this end they are organising, as part of the national fishing week, the 'FISHINGmagic Junior Teach-in' on the 24th of August this year in Buckinghamshire. It is open to Children aged 8 - 16 years inclusive; in particular those who have never fished before and of course any other family members who wish to lend them a helping hand. You can find more details and apply for a place on the day at 'www.fishingmagic.com' then click on the Junior Teach-in link under the 'FM Hot-Spots' banner.
I thank you for your time and would urge your readers to encourage their children to take up a fantastic and beneficial pastime this summer, GO FISHING.
Yours Faithfully, Paul Howarth, Derby.

Oops, I have kept the gaps between paragraphs in the saved version.

:0)

Gonna do a quick half hour on it & post up.

Dear Sirs,
I was dismayed to see the obvious lack of understanding and research into angling by Animal Aid?s Kelly Slade (Letters 8/8/05).
Many people have different and varied hobbies all of which have merit to that particular person. It is a past-time which, when taken seriously promotes problem solving skills, encourages social interaction and, contrary to Ms Slade's point of view, acute awareness of conservation issues. The universal policy of ?catch and release?, coupled with padded mats and ?non-slime removing nets? mean that fish are looked after by anglers as never before.
Any angler will confirm that we are equally disgusted by litter and discarded tackle, fortunately, the people guilty of this are in the minority. I and every other angler I know take home any litter we may find and this action is promoted throughout the angling world.

The report Ms Slade refers to regarding fish feeling pain was fundamentally flawed in that it made no reference to neurophysiological research, which has proved that fish?s brains are substantially different to those of mammals. For example the part of the brain which experiences pain and emotion is not present in fish. The report could not prove any neurophysiological effects i.e. they could not prove anything happened in the fish?s brains, thus any ?emotion? or ?pain? based conclusions are entirely spurious at this stage.
Since Animal Aid are notorious for campaigning against any human interaction with any animals, their opposition to angling is based on the premise of ideology first, proof later. Hardly a credible stance.

The Environment Agency, as Ms Slade is probably well aware, is funded partially by the sale of anglers? rod licences and also relies on the information from anglers and other members of the public in relation to any incidents of water pollution or wildlife distress.
One of the main reasons that the quality and cleanliness of our inland waterways has improved so much over the last four decades is through pressure from the angling press, societies, clubs and individuals to crack down on companies responsible for the pollutants. Anglers are genuinely concerned about our country?s environment and are passionately pro-active in protecting it.
The Government also realises the benefits angling offers the community, it is Britain's most popular past-time with over 3.8 million people taking part and contributing an estimated 3 billion pounds or more to the economy each year.

As an antidote to the ills of modern urban living and appreciating what?s left of our fast diminishing countryside and wildlife, there is nothing finer than fishing.
Yours Faithfully, Paul Howarth, Derby.