Animal rights

The picture left caught my eye in yesterday's DT. Part of the story was that Mr. A. N. Other 'spent 45 minutes reeling in the huge 9ft 2ins blue shark and struggled to heave it on to the charter boat to weigh and photograph it before returning it safe and well into the sea'.

To which my reaction was that it was a bit off to spend an hour or so playing with a large animal in a way certain to cause distress, quite possibly damage. Maybe even the fishy equivalent of PTSS. Mr. A. N. Other is deluding himself if he thinks that the shark doesn't mind; that it is all part of the shark's day's work.

It is one thing to catch sharks to eat, or because they are a menace to something that we do want to eat. Catching which could hopefully be done in some humane way. But it is quite another thing to do it just for fun.

PS: concerned readers can devise comparable entertainments involving shark fishermen instead of sharks.