ANGLERS in the Malvern and Ledbury area are being urged to get together to fight an animal rights campaign to ban the sport.

Members of Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), a US-based group, have launched an anti-fishing crusade in Britain, using a controversial image of a dog with a hook in its mouth.

But Nicky Driver, local spokeswoman for the Countryside Alliance's has dismissed the campaign as unreasonable.

She said: "The CA has long been defending country sports against the ill-informed, misguided and often dangerous attacks of the animal rights lobby.

"This organisation is trying to get fishing banned in the UK - having failed in the US they think we are a soft touch. British anglers will not be dictated to and we will not take this lying down.

"This campaign has not yet generated any public or media support. However, this is a real threat and the angling community must act. Fishing is not cruel, there is no evidence to suggest that it is cruel and we will not see it banned."

Game fisherman John Sheward, of Cradley, said: "It's never been established whether fish feel pain or not. Biologically, the jury is still out on that one.

"The other point is that there are approaching 3.5 million people in the country who take part in the sport, across all parts of the political spectrum. If they spend a few hundred pound each a year, that's a lot of money. Think of all the travel, hotels, licences, tackle, bait; it all adds up."

He said angling organisations also do a great deal of conservation work in and around lakes and waterways.