SIR – On August 1 the group In Defence Of Animals are having a Respect for Fish Day to raise awareness of the cruelty inflicted on fish for food and bloodsport.

Fish are excluded from many animal protection laws. There is conclusive evidence that fish do feel pain, so when they are dragged out of water by a sharp hook in their mouth they are in terrible pain. If someone did this to a dog or cat they would be prosecuted.

Likewise when fish are caught in nets, and thrown on to the decks of fishing boats to suffocate slowly.

There is also grave environmental costs to humans appetite for fish and seafood.

Fishing vessels decimate the world’s oceans, leaving them empty, lifeless, and on the brink of ecological collapse; 90 per cent of the large fish population have been decimated in the past 50 years.

Nearly 50 per cent of fish consumed in Britain come from farms where like all factory farmed animals they endure intense confinement, filthy conditions, mistreatment and high levels of disease.

So on August 1 please take a few minutes to look on Peta’s info page to find out more about fish. Why not try a Tofish or fishless fish fingers, which are available in most supermarkets.

Save the fish and the environment.

Max Burgess

Malvern