No doubt many are aware already, and those of you with more get up and go than I will have already found doucments etc on the web relating to the matter. However based upon just watching the breakfast news I gather.

a) Animal protection laws are being tighened up. Around cruelty, injury etc

Protection is being extended to insects and other invertebrates.

c) Fines up to 20K UKP and possible jail for offenders.

With typical journalistic flair one news paper, the Times is carrying an article "Kill a snail and go to Jail".

Now in the TV studio fish were not referred to and neither was angling. But they did highlight the risk to gardeners and putting down slug pellets.

Even if fish are explicity excluded how long can an argument for leaving a gap in the evolutionary pyramid in terms of the protection afforded hold out under challenge ?

Has anyone any more information on this in regards to angling implications ? Should I get a solicitor on a retainer ready for the first test case by petra ? We have heard warm noises from government regarding angling, are we being shafted by the back door ( ) either intentionally or due to incompetance by our legislators ?

Off to commit a crime very soon

Cheers

PS. Just chatting to the missus, who pointed out that the use of maggots, slugs, Lob, Rag and Lug worms, plus any live fish bait could be problematic.

Just a thought, has anyone (at all, not just AN) ever been in court over fishing, because law has a thing called precedance and if we have won before the judge/s MUST use that ruling!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uklatest/story/0...4295945,00.html

TL - leon

The new Act has far reaching consequences if carried out. The people who put these laws together are not known for lateral thinking though. No one in their right mind would knowingly inflict pain, suffering and injury to an animal, but some are unable to differentiate between the different life forms. Under the new legislation a gardener could be fined up to £20k for putting out slug pellets, and heaven help them if a cat were to eat them.
Looks like slugs, snails worms and caterpillars etc etc will be banned as bait now we have the bunny huggers in charge. AND you can bet your bottom dollar that some of the new Lib Dem councils will be pushing this new law to the letter.
I have already e-mailed my MP on the issue.

'fishing is nature's medical prescription'

I have heard that in some parts of the country GP's are writing out prescription for, for patients suffering with stress(paid for by the NHS) a round of golf at local clubs. How about giving people suffering from stress a membership of the local angling club, of course paid for by the NHS

[ 10. July 2004, 01:33 PM: Message edited by: wearyone ]

Not necessarily a goer that one: Arrive at lake, one free swim between two families with many children all wanting to cast at once, constant cries of what you caught mister?, idiot over the other side casts into your swim, litter everywhere, accosted by flotilla of birdlife, hook into Billy no mates the local moorhen ....

All potentially high blood pressure scenarios - or just another day on a local puddle

[ 10. July 2004, 01:42 PM: Message edited by: allibee ]

i know the blue peter dogs are held in high esteem by some, but i dont think any of them are capable of fielding a convincing legal challenge, besides, that ones been dead for years

The trouble with petra - either of them - is that they haven't got a leg to stand on.

their published accounts show something like 30% of their income is doled out to militant causes and according to legislation, that stops making them a charity and they stand to lose everything they have should they push their luck

I await with great expectation the first successful domestic cat owner prosecution for letting their pet out into the wild to kill what it can.

You know, it makes me laugh..all these "protected species" yet they have no protection atall against the domestic cat. It's high time something was done about this, and owners were taken to task AND to court.

It's the worst urban wildlife killer that there is- 35,000,000 birds per annum in the UK according to the RSPCA, yet what happens? Nothing..and their extremely selfish owners would call themselves "animal lovers". Ha bloody ha.

The Government should get its priorities right.

[ 10. July 2004, 02:18 PM: Message edited by: Graham X ]

I have 3 cats

If you love wildlife so much, why do you stick a hook in a fish ... for YOUR pleasure?

Double standards at its worst

:mad:

[ 10. July 2004, 03:11 PM: Message edited by: allibee ]