LAST week's revelation that 6,000 British ducks face slaughter because they are mating with the Spanish white-headed duck has ruffled feathers with anglers throughout the country.

They are now demanding action by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to organise a cull of inland cormorants.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the Wildlife and Wetlands Trust both support the British ruddy duck cull, which is being organised by DEFRA and could cost £5million.

The RSPB supports the cull on the grounds that if the ruddy duck, an American import, is not removed, the white-headed duck may become extinct. But Andrew Tyler, director of Animal Aid, said: "It's a gross genetic cleansing of nature, which is unacceptable. Some of the ducks will be shot while they are sitting on nests with their chicks. It is a grotesque exercise."

Anglers are enraged about Government departments sitting on their hands over cormorant predation, which is having a devastating affect on fish stocks, while millions of pounds is spent protecting a duck which is being shot almost out of existence in Spain.

NFA president Ken Ball said: "The public at large can't see fish under the water and they don't understand that two cormorants working on a five-acre fishery could kill every fish in two years. No angler wants to see a total cull of cormorants but we want the balance to be right. If the public understood cormorants pose a threat to other fish-eating birds like kingfishers and herons, I believe opinion would be on our side."

Forthcoming weekend match bookings

Sunday, April 6 - Park View Lake Pudsey Royal Angling Club Pegs 1 to 16 inclusive.

Sunday, April 13 - Park View Lake 40 peg (first come, first served)

Run by Ken Wallis on behalf of YDAA at £5 per entry.

Updated: 09:45 Friday, April 04, 2003