Posted by Laurence Monkhouse on March 25, 2004 at 07:46:51 from 217.137.106.47 user Laurence_.
In Reply to: Hunting, Shooting and Fishing (was Moby Dick and other irrelevancies) posted by Robert Dilley on March 25, 2004 at 00:32:17:
I'm not convinced that there were any qualifications at all to AR's love of fishing, as opposed to his clear opposition to killing rare species of birds. There was a recently republished story of his - possibly in a Mixed Moss? - in which he spent a couple of days pulling pike out as fast as he could.
I suspect that he was one of the huge multitude who don't count fishing as a blood sport. The argument seems to be that fish don't feel pain, although from my own observations they don't seem very pleased at the experience of being caught.
I freely admit, however, that my moral doubts may stem from the fact that I am biased against people who obstruct perfectly good boating water with long poles and with lengths of string which get tangled in propellors and centre boards.