PETA and the new anti fishing campaign – fishing blog reactions!

by Alistair

While reading some other fishing blogs I could not help notice people are discussing the new “People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals” (PETA) anti fishing campaign.

In case you did not know PETA campaign for any kind of injustice against animals, for example: eating them, using their skin for clothes (wool & leather etc), keeping them as pets (they have lightened up slightly on this) and animal experimentation.

However, please bare in mind they are no muesli eating hippy chanters – they have links to serious terrorism and the danger is that what they have to say may be taken seriously by people who should no better. These people already receive some serious news-time and every year they seem to attract more support from people who, quite frankly, have little idea what their real agenda is. 

Some people even leave PETA because they find the organisation too extreme- they are looked down upon for “just” being vegetarians and not vegans. 

The New Campaign

PETA in their new campaign state that fish have had bad PR up until now and people should change their views towards them. They compare fish to kittens and say:

Sea kittens are just as intelligent (not to mention adorable) as dogs and cats, and they feel pain just as all animals do.

They then ask children to create their own “Sea Kitten” on their site – you can add lipstick, sun glasses, give it a water bowl and add an elephants trunk. Something tells me PETA are not way up their on what actually goes on in nature. I thought it was a spoof until I saw it myself. 

Kinda goes against a lot of what PETA advocates against I thought. 

I then created this highly educational “Sea Kitten” complete with a mohican, an elephants trunk, a Fu Manchu moustache (annoyingly hidden by the trunk) and a novelty pair of cute ears.

I tried to liken it to a real life “Sea Kitten”

Meanwhile….Will fish for Work and Buster Wants to Fish have struck back with their views on the campaign of ridiculousness.

The Strike-Backs

Will work for Fish got himself all angry and stated the common sense argument that most of us eat meat, and animals still hunt – he also kicks into gear the “Land Puppies” campaign – I love it!!!

Please note comparison of his own real live piece of nature below and what PETA will want to teach your kids above.

Meanwhile, Buster Wants to Fish hits us all with the moral view:

…and I’m going to keep it simple – quit fucking with our kids, dammit.

Yes Buster, I could not agree more…

My view – the scientific one.

Turns out once I had added some butter and some seasoning, a kitten still did not taste as nice as trout. “Sea Kittens” may not be as adorable as kittens however they taste one hell of a lot better.

PETA are onto a loser with this campaign I reckon –  you cannot catch and release a kitten – not without a lot of blood anyway (It turned out)

What you can do?

I have absolutely no idea, the whole campaign is silly – although it would be fun if other fishing bloggers posted pictures of their own made up “Sea Kittens” – Give em’ hell boys!

Edit:Now that I have thought about it overnight – fishers can just do what they do – be a responsible fisher and a good advocate for our sport to friends, neighbours and passers by. 


22 thoughts on “PETA and the new anti fishing campaign – fishing blog reactions!”

  1. Yep, I’ve heard of these tossers before and their tactics are weird to say the least. Admittedly, though, they have in the past stood up for e.g. the maltreatment of dogs by those dog-loving Koreans who prefer to skin dogs alive rather then just shooting them before eating them, so I’d tend to support them on that score. However, and regards angling, I always say to vegans or veggies that its just as well the onions or potatoes don’t scream when you skin them ‘alive’! Apart from that daft outburst (which is not that far away from their philosophy) I generally can soften-them-up when I say that we all have tendencies of saying, for example, “oh, the dogs not talking to me or the cats-in-a-huff”. In other words, we are dab-hands at appending human traits and emotions onto animals, when, realistically, these animals don’t have human traits because they are not human in the first place. Also, I generally find these ultra would-be do-gooders are pretty ignorant about nature in general and the animals that they’re supposed to be protecting. About ten-years ago I spoke to anti-angling blonde haired female in a boozer one night…her arguement imploded when – instead of doing her home work and referring to our salmon species as Atlantic Salmon – she called them…wait for it…Sea Salmon! Even my nephew (who’s been painfully slow to take in what I’ve been trying to imbue him with in angling facts or techniques) nearly had an accident…we’ll he did fall completely off his seat in laughter but managed not to hurt himself in the process.
    Another little fact that I tend to let slip (for the benefit of the ‘impressively ignorant’, as I like to call them) is that the majority of rivers or lochs (say, in Scotland, as an example) that have had their fish populations entirely wiped-out by polluters are often re-seeded with fish by angling associations/clubs etc who do this for the love of nature and looking after the environment as a matter duty not as something to get together and gibber about.
    There is two ways of dealing with ignorance: either you dismiss and don’t answer them or you deal with them head on. A good way wasting the ignorant is to publicly humiliate them…this can be done in a variety of ways but the auld fashioned Scottish way is to get them into some form of conversation and then show-them-up by highlighting their ignorance to the public.
    By the way guys…I’ve got some natural fly ideas that maybe you kids have never seen before…interested?
    Cheers
    Boad

  3. Bizarre people. When you click the link that says “What is a Sea Kitten” you get to the ‘About’ page, which just gives some mumbo-jumbo that tells you precisely nothing. They appear to be some sort of cartoon figment of the imagination.

    Is turning fish into Disney characters “ethical”? I also just can’t see WTH the campaign is aimed at — looks more like trawling and industrial over-fishing, which I agree does need some serious consideration (read “End of the Line” by Charles Clover for a sensible discussion), but then there is mention of trout, but not of rivers.

    And the Sea Kitten stories? There’s no internal logic at all. Tony the Trout has a degree in neuroscience and then gets caught, and eaten by a little boy who has had his brain mushed up by mercury from eating too many contaminated sea-fish. God, you couldn’t make this stuff up.

    One has to hope that, with the passing of Bush, and the hoped-for return to some kind of thinking (or at least not disparaging ‘thinking’) that this ill-considered, lazy schlock will go straight into the mental dustbin where it belongs.

  5. UPDATE 2 (sorry, Alistair, for all this stuff — I’ll stop now)

    I think we can detect the fell hand of the Religious Right somewhere here:

    It’s an interesting question, but Biblical scholars agree that the appropriate question for Christians is, “What should we be eating?” The Bible clearly says that our bodies are temples and that we should take care of them. Yet it’s a fact that all fish flesh today is contaminated with heavy metals and other toxins. In fact, fish flesh is just about the most polluted thing that humans put into their bodies. On that basis alone, Christians should not be eating it.

    Today’s fishing practices are also horribly cruel to God’s creatures. God cares for all His creatures, and the Bible counsels compassion for all beings. We all understand that it is immoral and contrary to Christian mercy to torture dogs and cats. It is equally unchristian to torture and kill (or pay others to torture and kill) fish and other animals. Although they may not be able to scream out in pain, fish have the same capacity for suffering and the same right to compassion as all living beings.

    That’s from the PETA Fishing Hurts sub-site:
    http://www.fishinghurts.com/FAQ.asp

    Gotta love the faux science, too: “it’s a fact that all fish flesh today is contaminated with heavy metals and other toxins”.

  6. Pure mince and bollocks , all of it! Written by weirdo’s who have no idea about the natural world or any of its inhabitants!These peoploe are politically driven extremists whose only remit is publicity. I totally take offence at the way they are targetting children and stuffing their brains with mis-information and lies. Furthermore, as has been clearly illustrated, there are many animals that kill for food and for sport. Look at a pod of killer whales and how they can persue a young sperm whale and her pup for miles just to take chunks out of them and then swim off, or the way they ” play” with seals. Nature is not soft and fluffy and certainly looks nothing like a Disney cartoon. It’s the survival of the fittest and kill or be killed most of the time. To teach our children otherwise is both irresponsible and confusing and when done under the banner of education / conservation is nothing short of brainwashing !!

  8. This is the same ‘organisation’ that violently assaulted anglers at an English fishery recently. They turned up in a van donning balaclavas and baseball bats, then physically assaulted a woman angler (and others) and smashed their rods etc etc.

    Is a human being not one of god’s creatures?

    Were their actions towards said creature cruel and unethical?

    bunch of fucking hypocrites.

  9. Hi Guys,
    Just when I thought that this site was a bible-thumping free zone, some born again moron turns up and wastes it. Incidentally I have always been of the belief that only insects can be ‘born again’ as they go through physical changes re from egg to larvae to adult. Please ban these folk (along with the pals of PETA, should they turn up) that are intellectually destroying the world. Imagine talking about gods in the 21st century!
    Now, back to angling and an attempt to talk about proper matters.
    Do any of you Urban-Fly Fishers fish the White Cart Water?
    I’ve fished it for over forty-years (so am nae spring chicken)and found that it produces far bigger brown trout than other urban waters. My best fish (1983) was 5 pound 3 ounces but I’ve have many over the 3 pound and a few at 4 and above. I don’t think that the Kelvin, Rotten Calder (EK), Luggie etc, etc, can compete.
    Lets forget about these PETA folk and treat them a PETTY minded shallow folk that have no interests in their boring lives due to their weird contenance, inane social skills and zero communication skills.
    Let create a new angling association and we can could call it: Lets Kill a Petty Peta Member or something descriptive like that.
    Cheers…am off to the boozer.
    Boab

  10. ALEX they might have been fishing without a permit lol but a do not like the sound of these daftys

  13. Hi guys,
    I tried to get a link into the White Cart page but could not find one…so perhaps Alastair can work his magic and get me linked up.
    Regards Stuart B qestion about where I’ve fished on the White Cart…I’ve fished from above Eaglesham (including the Dunwan and other burns) downstream to Pollok Park. With no disrepect intended Stuart, but not many folk nowadays use their legs as often as they should and so they don’t cover as much ground as they aught to. How long have you fished the Cart Stuart? I hear that the Busby are asking for volunteers to bailiff…will you be offering your services?
    As an afficionado of the Busby I’ve been in discussions with the Flood Prevention Project Engineers for over four-years, and while these works are not exactly what we would like for the Cart, these engineers etc have been very forthcoming in their desires to listen to the local angling clubs. Indeed, I have their assurances that certain areas will be helped in a variety of ways.
    For example: we asked them if they could insert groins in some of the straight stretches (say between Weirs and Scottish Power) to break up the canal-look and add flow through contours. We also asked them to help us reconstitute stretches of banking that have been buggered up by farmers allowing their cattle to trample and loosen and thereby erode the same. We’ve also asked for gravel to added in some areas to increase possible natural spawning redds: I have contact the Wild Trout Trout regarding this point and hope to hear from them soon.
    Regards the erosion matter: I’ve been trying to get the farmer that rents this particular stretch to stop his cattle from getting access to this areas and I’ve also contacted the landowners to insist that he does so or/and an amalgum of
    both. Recently, and because neither these two had made no positive noises, I have promised (threatened) them that I will bring in the Manager of Crown Estates in Scotland. I’ve also contacted a local councillor who just happens to be a farmer (in the vicinity) and gave him photographic evidence to back up our case for pressing our arguement.
    Regards further down the river: we have assurances that we will (during and on completion) have access to these areas e.g. Cathcart.
    To get back to the fishing…Stuart if your flyfishing the Cart then any fly that has black in it is usually good e.g. needle fly (it looks like an enormous midgie but does’nt bite); my black spider – which is BLACK and you won’t find it in the Hardy Book of Flies; blae and black (preferably as a nymph with folded wing case) and hotspot nymph. The only exceptions would be the dark olives (again as (baetis) nymphs and are GREEN); caddis grub cum-nymph (with a pale yellow body and dark thorax); the odd may fly, caddis (size 16 is wee enough and again tied as a nymph), the occasional heather and other terrestials e.g. daddy etc. I think you can cover most scenarios on the Cart with 20 flies or less. Incidentally, if the river is too high on the occasion that you might go there, don’t scoff at using the minnow by employing your fly rod: roll cast it out on a shortish leader.
    Hope Al can move this answer onto the page it was intended for….
    Cheers
    Boab

  14. Thx Boab ..( I now know who you are I think) 🙂

    Not sure what you have a problem with Boab re the Forum but you obviously saw my posting about the Cart so all you do is click “quote and reply” above or “reply to post” below . You do need to be registered though afaik.

  15. Hi Stuart…I thought you would work it out!
    Boab is one of my alter-egos…I generally use his services when I want to say something thats a bit risky, ha.
    Incidentally should have 09 permits before xmas.
    Cheers
    Boab

  16. Hi Stuart, me again.
    Naw son I cannot find or see the “quote and reply” or “reply to post” icon or option…any clues?!?!
    Ta

  17. Son?…lol

    They don’t appear until you log in as you can’t reply until you have .You can’t log in until you have registered .Login and Register buttons are up at the top of the Forum page. It’s ages since I registered so I think it’s instantaneous and it’s best if you use the same username as you do in here to avoid confusion.

  20. Is there some news article covering this somewhere? Anyone got a link?
    I’d like to see them pull that stunt on the Missouri river in Montana. They’d be lucky if the Sheriff got to them first.

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