Angling keeps young people off the streets and away from violence. This argument keeps coming up. There are plenty of other ways to involve youngsters in countryside projects and activities. We learn of many cases each year in which anglers are involved in murder, drug dealing and violence to each other. Neil Acourt, one of the people accused of murdering Stephen Lawrence is an angler.
Anglers are friendly, socially responsible people.
The same claim is made by many other animal abusers. A prevalent belief among anglers is that they have a greater right to the use of the waterways than others. Boat owners and canoeists are treated with contempt and anyone making a noise near an angler or asking them to move their equipment obstruction a towpath, risks incurring a mouthful of abuse, while locals are often inconvenienced by anglers cars and noise, especially where night fishing is allowed. People have fished since the dawn of time. At some point during our evolution our intelligence developed to the extent whereby we were able to catch fish - probably by the use of a spear and then some form of net.