Hunt protestors turn on anglers

[dunc85]

I couldn't see this posted anywhere else on Angler's net so here it is:

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml.../19/nfish19.xml

 

Anglers attacked by animal extremists

By Nigel Bunyan

(Filed: 19/08/2006)

 

A gang of masked animal rights activists has attacked a group of anglers, prompting fears that extremists are determined to widen the scope of their campaign of intimidation.

 

The 35 masked extremists had earlier disrupted a grouse shoot before being moved on by police.

 

A handful of people, some of them families, was enjoying a day out at the Bank House fly fishery, at Caton, near Lancaster, when the saboteurs arrived.

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Lucy Belson, of Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria, was fishing with a friend when they suddenly found themselves at the mercy of the gang.

 

"They began throwing stones at my rod and one of them said, 'It's the easy way or the hard way. You've been sabbed.' They told me to pack up and go or I was 'going to get wet'."

 

Fighting broke out as two anglers on a nearby stretch of bank struggled with the protesters. Miss Belson, a resuscitation nurse at Westmorland General Hospital, in Kendal, said: "I decided to get out of there and go home but suddenly they all ran towards me waving bats and blocks of wood, shouting, 'Get her'. "I was jostled and they smashed my fishing rod."

 

As she broke away from the melee, Miss Belson saw another woman being punched in the face and several cars being vandalised.

 

"I was shaken at the time but now I am angry," she said. "They are cowards and I certainly won't be frightened to go back to the lake. I love fishing and I have been doing it since I was a little girl."

 

Lancashire police believe that the anglers were the victims of an opportunistic attack. Earlier in the day the saboteurs had tried to disrupt a grouse shoot at Lowgill, near High Bentham.

 

At the height of the confrontation, police called in the force helicopter, an armed response vehicle and nine other vehicles. However, there were no arrests and the saboteurs headed away.

 

Pc Duncan Thomas, the force's wildlife officer, said that saboteurs were increasingly attacking anglers.

 

"Both anglers and grouse shooting parties should be aware of the threat to them and they should have contingencies in place to protect themselves."

 

A Countryside Alliance spokesman said: "It does seem to be the way animal rights extremists are heading. Their issue is not animal welfare - it is about hating people. They simply want to cause trouble."

 

Last year animal extremists attacked anglers on the Grand Union canal, in Milton Keynes. Some of the fishermen were thrown into the water.

 

Tom Fell, the regional director of the Countryside Alliance for Cumbria, said: "These people will stop at nothing to achieve their ends. They are a real worry and a real danger."

[Ken L]

If they start trying to use those tactics when there are 40 or 50 lads from a club from one of the big industrial cities fishing a match, they're going to quickly discover that anglers arn't nice middle class fox hunters with nice middle class values.

The fact that they decided to pick on women speaks volumes.

This could get very very ugly and very very violent.

[Newt]

At the height of the confrontation, police called in the force helicopter, an armed response vehicle and nine other vehicles. However, there were no arrests and the saboteurs headed away.

 

So the police arrived while the scum were still there and couldn't manage to arrest anyone?

[kleinboet]

That is one time that I would fill my catty with BB shot "by accident" and I would be "bumped" by one of them, making my "groundbait" hit them and not the water.

[les middy]

"Both anglers and grouse shooting parties should be aware of the threat to them and they should have contingencies in place to protect themselves."

 

A nice baseball bat should do

 

and as for the police if they did arrest anyone then they would have to fill in all the paper work

 

and they don't like working there as much use as a chocolate fire guard

[Guest Ferret1959]

That is one time that I would fill my catty with BB shot "by accident" and I would be "bumped" by one of them, making my "groundbait" hit them and not the water.

 

 

One against thirty?

 

I'd pack up n p1ss off smartish.

 

Best be a live coward than a dead hero.

 

 

 

I'd then come back with all me mates. :D

 

 

These 'sabs' are not real sabs, they where out only looking for a fight, any target any excuse.

 

Bit like the old days and football violence, nowt to do with footy just wanted a Satdy afternoon punch up.

[kleinboet]

Dave, first of all, I'd aim for the eyes. and my car jack can do some damage. These "sabs" would back off when they saw their mates getting really hurt, because, as you so rightly said, they are cowards!

[didi]

Again i might sound like a hoodlem but i take a machete with me everytime i go fishing in this day and age my biggest worry being smack heads in search of my tackle, but i say again i would have been ground bating my swin for croc's meaty chunks them anti sabs need some of what they are dishing out full stop

[Ken L]

Baseball bats and machette's. Really gentelmen, I know felings will run high but you can hardly justify such "offencive weapons" when the plod start looking over the bleeding bodies.

 

May I suggest a nice steel bankstick ?

 

Assuming you're right handed, hold it so the main length sticks out between thumb and forfinger, point it downwards and whip it clockwise so that it passes in front of chummies face. His head will almost certanly go back and at this point, make a right to left downwards strike to his left knee - and really get those hips in on the movement.

 

Almost impossible to move or block it once the head has gone back and it's the sort of blow that only has to be done once to get someones undivided attention - and that of a paramedic crew and orthopaedic surgeon.

[didi]

Baseball bats and machette's. Really gentelmen, I know felings will run high but you can hardly justify such "offencive weapons" when the plod start looking over the bleeding bodies.

 

May I suggest a nice steel bankstick ?

 

Assuming you're right handed, hold it so the main length sticks out between thumb and forfinger, point it downwards and whip it clockwise so that it passes in front of chummies face. His head will almost certanly go back and at this point, make a right to left downwards strike to his left knee - and really get those hips in on the movement.

 

Almost impossible to move or block it once the head has gone back and it's the sort of blow that only has to be done once to get someones undivided attention - and that of a paramedic crew and orthopaedic surgeon.

ok no baseball bats, no machetes just sharpen your bank sticks