Under the headline "Show consideration to our animals" (Letters, February 2), Elizabeth Wakefield says "fishing is a blood sport" and she is absolutely right.

The most common argument used to defend fishing is fish do not feel pain. This is untrue. Fish are vertebrates, with a brain, a central nervous system and pain receptors all over their bodies, including the lips.

Scientific research from around the world substantiates this. In a 1996 report examining the welfare of farmed fish, the Ministry of Agriculture's official advisory body, the Farm Animal Welfare Council, noted "almost all fish live the whole of their lives in water and show a maximal emergency response when removed from water, even for a very short period.

The fact fish are cold-blooded does not prevent them from having a pain system and, indeed, such a system is valuable in preserving life and maximising the biological fitness of individuals."

Anglers present themselves as custodians of the countryside. They claim to be conservationists without whom there would be no fish.

By-products of this so-called conservation are the waterside birds and mammals which die agonising deaths after becoming snared on discarded hooks and entangled in nylon line.

Fishing is a pastime which should be replaced with one which does not involve the hunting, wounding and killing of animals, the definition of a blood sport.

-David Hammond, Hassocks