I WRITE in reply to an article in The Press (Don't cull the swans, January 11). As an angler I don't agree with any suggestion of a cull of swans. However, to say that anglers are probably the biggest threat to wildlife in the country is a joke.

We face a threat to the environment from man in general, the constant need for water, land to build on, the overcrowded roads spewing pollution out, our throw-away society filling landfill sites throughout the country. Anglers are not the only ones who use the countryside.

The way these people talk you would think we cause all the rubbish along the riverbank or near a lake. Rawcliffe Lake is a good example; it has a nature reserve, and the anglers leave it alone. Joe Public, on the other hand, throws rubbish into it. Young vandals go into it and disturb the wildlife, nesting birds, and so on.

The Amalgamation Of Anglers has work teams that go around the lake to clear up the rubbish that's left by these idiots. They can't even leave the lifebelts alone, the council has to rescue them every week and put them back up.

If there were more anglers in our society, maybe there would be less bad behaviour in our overcrowded island.

J Wilson, Somerset Close, Rawcliffe, York.