RSPCA warns anglers

ONCE again the RSPCA is warning anglers to be careful with their litter after a duck was found with hooks in its beak and wing.

It was near Apsley Lock at Hemel Hemstead on the Grand Union Canal that the duck was seen thrashing about with its head at an angle that the RSPCA was called and discovered it had fishing hooks impaled, Alan Tilbury tells us.

Painful death

A spokesman for the association told that if the duck had not been caught and treated it would have suffered a painful death with such large pieces of fishing equipment caught in various parts of its body.

It was able to be caught when exhausted it went under a culvert at the side of the canal where an officer from the RSPCA almost had to lay on the towpath in order to reach under and grab it, relating:

"Of course, most people who fish are responsible with their litter and take care to dispose of it properly. But it only takes one thoughtless person to carelessly toss aside a bit of line or float with horrific consequences."