Why Not Save the Trout? : Fishing: This isn’t ‘sport’; it’s slaughter. Stop glamorizing it.

Robert Redford’s masterpiece of direction, “A River Runs Through It,” was acclaimed in an ad in this paper as being “like a stream of clear water.” It may be noted that the slaughter of rainbow trout depicted in the film, if continued, would surely reduce the river to merely “a stream of clear water.”

Aficionados of bullfighting speak as reverentially of the beauty and fine art of killing bulls as fly fishermen speak of killing rainbow trout. Many people deplore the killing of whales but are blind to the agony of a 5-pound trout struggling for its life on a fly fisherman’s sharp hook.

If there is a season for killing trout, why is there not a season for killing blue jays? They would be delicious roasted. People who deplore the molestation of whales but delight in killing game fish will say that there is not enough meat on a blue jay. My reply to them is that if the amount of edible meat is to be the test of survival, the whale should lead the list of game animals.

Whales, bulls, blue jays and rainbow trout are the exquisite creations of God, and should be left to pursue their lives in peace and tranquillity. If, in the struggle for existence, a man feels that his survival requires the murder of a fellow creature, that is another matter. But seldom have I seen a fly fisherman who lacked other sources of food. Trout are not killed primarily for food but for the display of manhood and skill, both exercises of ego.

Lest we forget that men as well as animals are frequently the victims of human blood lust, remember the invasions of Grenada, Panama and the Persian Gulf, in which the Sportsmen-Presidents Reagan and Bush stuffed their creels with dead Grenadians, Panamanians and Iraqis.

Happily, Hollywood no longer romanticizes what we do in the name of war. The same sensibility should apply to the carnage we do in the name of sport.