Silent screaming

Press, 17 May 1980, Page 14

Silent screaming

From the “Economist,” London

Fish, though . they keep quiet about it, feel pain, like any other vertebrates, so says an inquiry into shooting and ;angling .in Britain set up by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Anin.ils. The committee of four scie: fists, angl’.ig and shooting ■ • representatives and fauna. protectionists,. chaired by ecologist Lord Medway (now Lord Cranbrook), defined “cruelty” as ‘the imposition: by man of any unnecessary suffering on any animal.” It concluded that killing

wild animals is jmt cruel provided death is as nearly instantaneous as possible. The ooting fraternity, if using accurate and correct calibre weapons at. the right range, con cs sportingly out of the report. Beginners should stick to clay pigeons. Surprisingly, the committee comes down hard on anglers. They have previously escaped criticism because it is not "-early such fun — or good politics — to attack, a working man’s sport with 3.6 million fans in Britain. But, says the

committee, the . lips and mouths of fish are well endowed with sensory organs, including nerve endings. It deplores the use of live fish as bait; the prolonged “playing” of fish until they are too exhausted to resist being hauled out of the wr‘ ; and. the u-j of light tackle which-makes this.necessary. The committee frowns on the practice of using keepnets in angling competitions to return fish to the water and favours the use of barbless hooks. The R.S.P.C.A. has recently been torn apart by political dissension. Militants on 'the council have been trying to move it away from its traditional concern for domestic pets. During the battle about field sports there were rumours o“ infiltration by extremist groups such as the Hunt Saboteurs Association, which is supported by the British anarchist movement. So the R.S.P.C.A. has been finding it increasingly difficult tn ■’ sue agreed policy statements on such thorny issues as factory farming and blood sports. it --/as to try to get an agree'd policy- or shooting and angling that 'he R.S.P.C.A. set up tire Medway committee. Its exoneration of shooting and criticism of angling may make it even more difficult'for the R.S.P.C.A. to agree a line on these sport's.