Potential ban of fishing in the UK

[jlibs]

Hello BCFF,

Has anyone heard of the push to ban all fishing in the UK because "the fish have feelings" and "fishing is cruel to the fish"?
Apparently, several people and the government in the UK (not just PETA) feel that fishing is cruel.

I was just in the UK this past week and was inquiring about fly fishing the chalk streams on a future trip. Several people informed me that the UK has a big push to stop all hunting and fishing to prevent cruelty. Fox hunting has already been banned, and the next push is to ban all fishing, despite fish beiong sold in markets for consumption. I better get out and experience where our sport began while I still can.

Do you have anymore info? I'm curious.

JLIBS

[JoeOverlock]

I've been following that story with my news feeds. From what I've read, the activists don't stand a chance.

They where able to get that victory with the Fox hunting because Fox hunting was mainly practiced by the middle to upper class and wasn't as wildly popular or avaible to the majority as fishing is, so voters didn't really rally to stop the ban.

But Angling in England is VERY popular. I get more news feeds from England about Angling and Salmon concervation than I do from the States.

I'd be very shocked if they succeded with that ban.

[Uplander]

The UK is always a hotbed of animal activism. Even more so than the USA, the lack of understanding between the urban and the rural peoples is responsible for much strife.

www.countryside-alliance.org/

Do I think an angling ban will pass in the UK. Yes. Not this time around, but eventually…. Fox hunting was very popular in rural UK as well Joe, and not just a "toff" pursuit.

And, I think the same thing will happen here in the USA. First hunting will be banned, and then angling. It’s just a matter of time.

[FishinCane]

Uplander,

I sure hope you are wrong.

I don't think it will ever come to that here (ban of hunting/fishing). With that said, however, the potential still exists that in the future fishing/hunting will not be possible on the scale that it is now due to loss of public land or dessimation of resources.

We have to keep the sporting traditions alive by mentoring the youth of today. If not then the likes of PETA will have an impact. Right now they are just a joke.

www.fishinghurts.com/

[jlibs]

I was surprised to hear this from people that do not even fish, including Taxi drivers. I don't hink it's a joke. It's a shame, what ever it is.

On a side note, I took a metro/commuter train 2.5 hours south from London to Poole, UK for a business meeting. I passed groups of enormous pheasants (some ring necks) in groups of 1 - 20 at a time in the field hedge rows right near the train tracks. It's not likethat around here in Great Barrington. All I could think of was dinner and fly tying!!!!

JLIBS

[JoeOverlock]

Uplander,

Here are some figures I found about Fox Hunting in England:

There are roughly 200 official fox hunts in England, entertaining about 50,000 Britons

Their estimated take:
13,000 foxes
6,000 fox cubs

Here in the USA there is an estimated 171 fox hunting clubs, with 20,000 registered members.

I also looked for the history of Fox Hunting and found this, it's pretty interesting:

"Using scenthounds to track prey dates back to Assyrian, Babylonian and ancient Egyptian times, and is known as venery. In England, hunting with hounds was popular before the Romans arrived, using the Agassaei breed. The Romans brought their Castorian and Fulpine hound breeds, along with importing the brown hare (the mountain hare is native) and additional species of deer as quarry. Wild boar was also hunted. The Norman hunting traditions were added when William the Conqueror arrived, along with the Gascon and Talbot hounds; indeed, the traditional hunting cry 'tally ho' derives from the Norman French equivalent of 'il est haut' (he is up); ie. the stag has started running. By 1340 the four beasts of venery were the hare, the hart, the wolf and the wild boar. The five beasts of the chase were the buck, the doe, the fox, the marten and the roe.

The earliest known attempt to hunt a fox with hounds was in Norfolk, England, in 1534, where farmers began chasing down foxes with their dogs as pest control. By the end of the seventeenth century many organised packs were hunting both hare and fox, and during the eighteenth century packs specifically for fox hunting were appearing. The passing of the Enclosure Acts from 1760 to 1840 had made hunting deer much more difficult in many areas of the country, as that requires great areas of open land. Also, the new fences made jumping the obstacles separating the fields part of the hunting tradition. With the onset of the Industrial Revolution, people began to move out of the country and into towns and cities to find work. Roads, rail and canals split the hunting country, but also made hunting accessible to more people. Shotguns were improved during the nineteenth century and game shooting became more popular. To protect the pheasants for the shooters, gamekeepers culled the foxes almost to extirpation in popular areas, which caused the huntsmen to improve their coverts. Finally the Game Laws were relaxed in 1831 and later abolished, which meant anyone could obtain a permit to take rabbits, hares and gamebirds."

The more I read about Fox Hunting the more I'm interested in it. Has anyone ever been on a Fox Hunt here? I'd like to give it a try.