The debate wasset up at thelast-minute to replace one about holiday travel which would have been a faux pas in the aftermath of the Madrid disaster.
PETA are the ones who always appear because they're the only anti-anglingorganisation left that has well-paid employees who are willing to go on air. The PETA guy basically only had a load of shaky pseudo-science to fall back on. And most of that was full of half-truths and spin.
Myself, I did it because AT was approached and, having had previous radio and TV experience, I was considered to be the best last-minute option. You've got to start somewhere haven't you? I had done some research with the help of Dr Bruno Broughton.
After attacking the PETA rep for killing animals given into their care and discrediting him somewhat, the presenter Bacon seemed to take offence and went on the offensive. Basically, the 'fish feel pain' argument is an easy, provocative subject for mainstream journos to choose. And a lazy one.When they appear toknow bugger all about fishing, biology or the environment then it's no surprise theyrevert to the 'fish feel pain' attack.
Igot the impression that Bacon isn't that sharp. While I admit I could have been more concise and clearwith my argument, how difficult is it to understand that,on the scaleof evolution, fishhave always beenat the bottom of the ladder? They have abasic bodymodel that can suffer traumas and damage that would kill any land-based mammal or bird outright. How can havinghooks intheir mouth be detrimental to fish when they often survive being chewed up by otters or almost sliced in half by a cormorant? Ifthey felt pain like mammals dothen fish would spend half the spawning season incapacitated by the injuriesthey cause one another!!!!
Bacon also poured scorn on the hunter-gatherer point of view (like he did nearly everything else I mentioned), suggesting that modern society is so much better than when we were 'cavemen'. However, I never noticed cavemen causing global warming and species extinctions at a rate only exceeded during global catastrophes like comet impacts and supervolcanoes! He is just as conceited as the rest of modern societyin seeming tobelieve that humankindsits at the pinnacle of evolution and that, by default, the planet and everything on it belongs to us. He has obviously neverconsidered that, as far as the planet and all the other species on it are concerned,modern humans arenothing short of a destructive plague.
IfBacon was as concerned about the natural world as most serious anglers are then maybe he would be more sympathetic to the sport of angling instead of jumping on the tired and shallow argument that anglers are cruel because they must be causing fish pain. Sometimes I just wish these media types and scientific paper-writingboffins would get out of their pre-fabricated environment and go and find out for themselves exactly what the natural world is really like by appreciating itin the waymostanglers do.... by becoming a part of it!
We can live in hope. Rant over!