Apparently Fox Hunting is really cruel but battery hens & angling aren't!
Fishing is the biggest participant sport in the UK (and apparently Australia too) and therefore the most popular form of hunting. There are votes & licence fees (taxes) at stake.
From the Countryside Alliance today:
"Getting into angling
The Environment Agency’s (EA) new strategy “a better environment, healthier fisheries” is a positive recognition of the social and economic benefits of angling, but we are concerned that its target for increasing the number of anglers is not nearly ambitious enough.
The strategy for 2006-2011 wants “fisheries to play a greater role in England and Wales to encourage more people to help us protect and improve our environment and to help fishing contribute more to society.” However, the EA’s target for rod licence sales for 2006/07, 1.261m, is exactly the same number as were sold in 2003/04.
Nearly all the environmental and social successes the strategy highlights have been achieved by Government working with anglers. That is why it is disappointing that the EA has not set itself a target to attract significantly more people to fishing.
Angling organisations are working to get more people into angling through schemes like ‘Get hooked on fishing’, ‘National Angling Week’ and the ‘Scottish National Angling Project’. We hope that the Government and its agencies across Britain will work with us and support everyone’s ambition to see hundreds of thousands of new anglers."
March 3rd, 2006
