I WENT fishing today, that is I went to buy some small goldfish for my garden pond. You see I witnessed this large wild mink leaving my pond looking quite satisfied after wolfing down my lovely fat goldfish, that I had nursed from small fry to five inches of good living in my glass aquarium. And as they had grown so large they were put in the pond -- worse luck.

Although I held in my grasp my thick and heavy walking stick, I just could not kill the creature. After all, it was its natural purpose to kill, being a born killer in the wild; nevertheless, I wished he had kept around Bradshaw Brook, its home since being released from its cage at the mink farm.

What these animal activists lack in brains, they don't lack in their motives of breaking the law.

To release these furry killers in our English countryside has brought about the decimation of all our indigenous wildlife along our waterways.

This brook is devoid of any fish larger than the spiny stickleback. There are no water voles to be seen either. Or that most beautiful fish eater, the gorgeous kingfisher. Once they could be seen along the sandy banks of the brook, where they nested. They have all gone.

Now this animal invades people's gardens and looks for its food; being a fierce predator no tame rabbit or chickens are safe any more.

One might say 'what's the point of getting more goldfish?' Well, the truth is I didn't buy any. At 79p each for a small tiddler of about one inch, I could buy a couple of herring at the fish market for my tea instead.

Edward G Hill

Wemsley Grove

Tonge Moor, Bolton I WENT fishing today, that is I went to buy some small goldfish for my garden pond. You see I witnessed this large wild mink leaving my pond looking quite satisfied after wolfing down my lovely fat goldfish, that I had nursed from small fry to five inches of good living in my glass aquarium. And as they had grown so large they were put

in the pond -- worse luck.

Although I held in my grasp my thick and heavy walking stick, I just could not kill the creature. After all, it was its natural purpose to kill, being a born killer in the wild; nevertheless, I wished he had kept around Bradshaw Brook, its home since being released from its cage at the mink farm.

What these animal activists lack in brains, they don't lack in their motives of breaking the law.

To release these furry killers in our English countryside has brought about the decimation of all our indigenous wild life along our waterways.

This brook is devoid of any fish larger than the spiny stickleback. There are no water voles to be seen either. And that most beautiful fish eater, the gorgeous kingfisher. Once they could be seen along the sandy banks of the brook where it nests. They have all gone.

Now this animal invades people's gardens and looks for its food; being a fierce predator no tame rabbit or chickens are safe any more.

One might say 'what's the point of getting more goldfish?' Well, the truth is I didn't buy any. At 79p each for a small tiddler of about one inch, I could buy a couple of herring at the fish market for my tea instead.

Edward G Hill

Wemsley Grove

Tonge Moor, Bolton