REGARDING your item about angling (Sporting way to preserve wildlife habitats, April 3), for Barry Potter to be campaigning for healthy rivers on the grounds that pollution reduces the number of fish that can be caught, and then to cite such campaigns as evidence that anglers are "caring" and "love wildlife", is odd.

Firstly, any such conservation work is undertaken for purely selfish reasons, and is not, as Mr Potter claims, proof that anglers are full of compassion.

Secondly, fishermen cause a considerable amount of suffering, not only to the fish, but also to the countless birds killed or injured by the angler's own particular brand of environmental pollution - lost or discarded tackle.

Like grouse shooters, fox hunters, lampers, hare coursers, badger baiters and of course meat eaters, anglers do what they do simply because they enjoy doing it.

Just as meat eaters had no right to get sentimental about Phoenix the calf, so anglers have no right to claim the moral high ground about wildlife. All those who use animals for 'sport' forfeit that moral ground every time they pull a trigger, set a trap, or cast a line.

There is no such thing as a Christian atheist or a brave coward, and there is no such thing as a compassionate fisherman. You can choose either to respect animals or to use them. But you can't have your fishcake and eat it.

Richard Lawrence,

Wentworth College,

University of York,

Heslington, York.

Updated: 10:29 Tuesday, April 09, 2002