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Anti-fishing extremism now on the rise, says Alliance

The recent nail bomb attacks on fish and chip shops have proved that threats of violence against the angling community from animal rights extremists are now being realised, and that - as long feared - anti-hunting animal rights groups are widening their net to include fishing.

Although nobody has claimed responsibility for the recent attack, the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) has confirmed that fish and chip shops are to be targeted, bringing the total number of animal rights organisations targeting fishing to four. The Hunt Saboteurs Association (HSA) and the Campaign for the Abolition of Angling are already notorious for their direct and often violent illegal activities to disrupt lawful sporting activities, whilst People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have backed an anti-angling propaganda pack for schools.

A spokesman for the ALF was quoted recently as saying: "The fishing industry is perceived as being very, very cruel", whilst the HSA confirmed over the Christmas period that: "Campaigns against fishing and shooting have always been in our remit. We are against all bloodsports, it is just a natural progression".

Charles Jardine, director of the Alliance's Gone Fishing campaign said: "This escalation of anti-fishing violence proves, if any proof were needed, what we have long said: many of the same organisations in the vanguard of anti-hunting extremism also consider fishing fair game. Organisations such as the ALF and the HSA are extremely active against hunting and have perpetrated many acts, including the ALF's recent theft of the Wye College Beagles. They have just been biding their time until they had an anti-hunting vote in the Commons and they are now showing their true colours on fishing".

"We have been warning the angling community for some time that the threats made by groups, such as the Campaign for the Abolition of Angling and the HSA are not to be taken lightly. To have animal rights activists come after fishing is an extremely serious prospect. It is time anglers and angling supporters realised that the sport is now under the same kind of threat, from many of the same extremely determined and dangerous quarters, that hunting has had to endure for years".