Anglers castigated

ANGLERS are being castigated in letters to local papers and blogs after a swan had to be put down after suffering for weeks through anglers' insensibility to the creatures, and 45 others effected.

This was further exacerbated by the information from the RSPCA  that at one area alone it dealt with no less than 45 injuries to the birds from discarded fishing tackle, Alan Tilbury reveals.

Near-severed leg

The swan that had to be put down had a fishing line tight around its leg  causing it untold suffering to its near-severed limb, with the male bird  spotted by a member of the public on the towpath of the Trent & Mersey Canal in Middlewich attempting to walk on its dragging leg.

It was rescued and taken to the RSPCA Stapeley Grange Wildlife Centre, with the fishing line embedded so deeply that nothing could be done for it, and so was put down to end its suffering.

Wildlife Supervisor Andrew Smith explained:

"This poor swan was in a terrible state and must have been in considerable pain. His leg was covered in ice because the blood supply had been cut off and the bone had started to break down because of infection.

"It must have suffered several weeks for him to get into that condition. It's one of the worst fishing line injuries I've ever seen."

Of the cavalier attitude of anglers to wildlife, Andrew added:

"We're devoting more and more time treating animals and birds which suffer because of anglers' litter. The tragedy is that such incidents could be avoided if people disposed of litter properly."

He then told that last year, in 2009, staff at Stapeley alone dealt with 45 swans with fishing tackle injuries.

Fishing should be banned

Comments in papers and blogs are mostly of the opinion that where swans abound, particularly on canals, fishing should be banned.

Many boaters, us included, who often have the problem of unwinding yards of fishing line from the stern tube, slung into the canals by uncaring fishermen, leaving us risking injury and the possibility of contracting Weils disease, could well agree.