Ban One - they All Fall.

VERY IMPORTANT ACTION:
Write Now to Your MP and tell him or her how much you support the Hunting Bill, how important it is to you and your friends locally that Hunting is ended now and they must vote to end it. This ban is the first step to true animal welfare and all blood-sports being banned.

This section, and in more detail opposite, shows how to achieve a Local Angling Ban.

• Identify fishing waters owned by the Local Authority - these are the softest targets for local bans. Gather the evidence of why it should be stopped there.
• Ensure it is reported by the Local Press in the worst possible light with your photographs and demand a ban on angling there
• Back it up with many supportive letters to show strength of public feeling supporting a ban in weeks following the article
• Test the anglers reactions to your demanding a ban and then use this to add pressure to your case
• Start a petition on the back of your newspaper coverage and letters
• Use this to get local councillors and the local MP behind you for a ban
• Suddenly you have a local ban passed by the Council - be sure to thank your MP publicly in the press for all his support for an angling ban. What you have now is an MP who has shown his commitment to banning angling.

We will be adding more sections here in coming weeks showing how to:

• Get Projects running in schools as part of the National Curriculum to show children how cruel angling is
• Persuade Children Not to Fish and to give up angling
• Get the Public to Realise Angling's Cruelty and the sadistic pleasure of anglers
• Highlight the environmental damage caused by angling
• Sab Angling

We must All step up our Activity Now

• Keep the pressure on the Government.
• Educate the public about angling cruelty
• Persuade Anglers to stop fishing.
• Show Children how cruel angling is.
• Get the message into more classrooms. (Find out what You can do in the Campaigns section)

Here are some simple ideas
We have also included links to pages in other sites which have large campaigning sectiona. There are others in the 'Links to Campaign Sites section'. There is no point in duplicating information for the sake of it.

Having joined or formed a group you can start with any of the things below. Remember when you are out campaigning it is always better to have a group of you as the angling scum have shown violence towards some lone campaigners but dare not when there are a group to act as witnesses.

Getting Started .
Check out your local rivers and lakes, find out where they are and what they are used for. Look for angling club signs and notices of competitions. Find out if any belong to the local authority, you can do this by telephoning the parks or recreation departmentat the local council who will be pleased to tell you.

Local Bans
Local bans are easiest to get on water owned by the local authority. If you can show that anglers are abusing it, and this is usually easy, then they will begin to listen to you and you are on your way to a ban. Here's what to do:

Get Evidence first hand. Keep a careful watch for dead fish, dead birds, litter and tackle left lying around. Take pictures noting the date and place and send these to Local Councillors and the Local Newspaper demanding that angling be banned on the lake or river concerned. As soon as the local paper publish your picture get others in your group to begin writing to the letters section approving of your action and demanding that angling be banned there.

Widen the issue in the Local Paper with letters. This is the chance for others to widen the issue into general angling cruelty with some graphic descriptions, quote the RSPCA position, the Medway Report proving fish feel pain, and make sure you bring in that the Government Spokesman on Angling says that angling will have to be banned as it cannot meet the hunting tests. Make sure that there are 2 or 3 letters each week. Don't use the same address or name too often - it needs to be seen that 'many people' share your concerns.

Go and Meet the Enemy and record their Reaction ! Now is the time for your group to go down to the lake or river and begin talking to the anglers and particularly children - why not have a demonstration against them? but first let the local press and radio know. If you do that be sure to take some children and elderly people with you - the press love it. Tell the anglers there that you are going to get them banned from fishing there, that they are cruel, the scum of the earth and be sure to have someone with a camera to take pictures of their reactions. Knowing anglers these will be extreme - but are exactly what you want to show the public what vicious thugs they are. Send these to the police with a complaint, send them to the local newspaper for a new article .......... and follow up with more letters.

Then start a petition, take a cutting of any newspaper article and your photos along with a selection of the letters published in your local paper. With your group you can go door to door, or by the local shops or newsagent.Tell people what you are doing, show them the pictures and the curttings to show how many local people (and the local paper) are horrified and want angling banned there. Then ask them to support local people by signing the petition. Most people will sign straight away - it works every time!

Get Local Councillors Involved. With a few hundred signatures you can ask to meet the local councillors impressing on them how many signatures you have got in just a few days from their voters because the public are so horrified at angling there. Now you are ready to ask them to put forwards a ban to the council supported by your petition. Add more signatures and you are on your way to your first ban.

Get Your MP on board. Go and see your local MP at their surgery. If you cannot for any reason then telelphone them or last choice write to them. Explain how strong local feelings are running against anglers and their abuse of the local water, that you have hundreds of signatures from their electors with the petition growing every day, ask them to add their weight in support of the people who voted for them.

But as importantly as moving towards your own local ban you will have changed the view that many thousands of local people have of angling and helped them to see how cruel anglers are. You will have local councillors committed to angling bans and if all works you will now have an MP who has publicly committed to an angling ban. That makes it very hard for them not to support this when it comes forwards in Parliament.