Posted on 07/28/2005 9:29:48 PM PDT by smoothsailing
PETA hooks the wrong fish
By Eric Heyl
Friday, July 29, 2005
I was in a custom auto shop yesterday, and as you might imagine, the topic of whether fish are capable of experiencing pain was broached.
I know, I know. Seems like you can't take a car in to be turbo-charged these days without having a discussion on the sensory capabilities of cold-blooded aquatic vertebrates.
"I never really thought too much about it before," said Meagan Barker, co-owner of Strict Fab Automotive Solutions on Route 51 in Jefferson Hills. "But no, I don't think a fish can actually feel a hook in its mouth."
Barker is thinking about such things with greater frequency since her exposure to the latest outlandish publicity stunt by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
PETA is protesting the sadistic animal cruelty it believes will occur in town this weekend at the CITGO Bassmaster Classic. The radical animal rights group is using as its tool an ad on a huge billboard directly above Strict Fab.
The ad features a computer-altered picture of a dog with a fish hook through its bloody lip and poses the question," If you wouldn't do this to a dog, why do it to a fish?"
Possibly because dogs and fish aren't really comparable creatures.
You can't walk, pet or groom a fish.
Try asking a bass to fetch a stick.
Or submerging a dog -- of any breed -- under water for a prolonged period. A few initial yelps of protest are liable to be followed by uninterrupted silence.
When it comes to animal blood sport, fishing never has ranked up there with pit bull fighting. Scientists and zoologists can't even agree on whether fish are intelligent enough to be cognizant of pain.
Given those facts, it's...
(Excerpt) Read more at pittsburghlive.com ...
"....dog filleted and served with tartar sauce."
its much better with a duck sauce on a bed of rice.
PETA is part of the wing of envirowackos that believe "Humanity is a virus infecting the earth mother goddess Gaia." They also believe in some scary depopulation schemes.
Of course will they take the leadership position by being among those to be part of the depopulation?
FReegards,
K4
I don't know how someone didn't have an eye put out.....
LMAO....PETA wasn't consulted when God created the food chain and they are still pissy about it.....too bad.
I guess I'm not part of that "we" to which you refer. Me, I heard of it and said, "Oh...that's gross!" And when I heard of people who ate grasshoppers, I said, "Oh...that's gross!"
It was only after I learned that veal was produced by raising calves in crates (and the really expensive veal was harvested in utero) that I actually ever used the terms "barbaric," "savage," and "immoral."
"Why is it okay to eat pigs (not only eat, but manufacture & process them like widgets), but not okay to eat dogs, cats, monkeys, and dolphins?"
It's the 'cuteness factor'. One simply cannot eat cute animals. You can't sit down to a steaming plate of braised baby kittens, but you can eat a pig's a$$. You can get dolphin safe tuna, but no tuna safe dolphin. Yup, the cute factor. Same thing that keeps you from killing your kids when they act up.
I dunno. I think they feel pain. I hate cleaning them because they're usually still alive. I'd rather field dress a deer.
Yes, water dogs are great. The dog I was talking about was actually half golden retiever and half yellow lab. A great dog and the nicest dog I have ever owned. Unfortunately they only live a short time compared to humans and so I lost him and haven't had another dog since, mainly because I am not in a situation where I can keep a dog right now, but partly because I am not sure I would find another one quite like him:)
lol!
I propose the following experiment to put this issue to bed:
In one containment tank an angler will hook a Bass, and observers will watch it jump, swim hard, and pull against the line and hook.
In another containment area, a Peta supporter will bite into a tofu burger laced with a treble hook and an angler with 200lb test line and a tuna rod will subdue the Peta specimen. The angler will set the hook on the unsuspecting peta specimen.
If the Peta specimen can pull, run the other way and jump against the treble hook embedded in his mouth I will concede the issue that fish feel pain.
Please point out where I stated catfish had teeth?
Be reassured the catfish head nipped my thumb and took a nice chuck out of it. The catfish has a row of these, the fish I caught was not near as big.
So where did you find this "catfish?" Doesn't look like anything I ever pulled out of domestic waters. Where are the whiskers? Granted it has a smooth skin, but so does an eel.
Sounds like you had to get down on your stomach, whether you wanted to or not.
Back when you could still bring a shotgun to school for after school hunting. One friend turned up the next day looking like he had chicken pox. Seems a dove flew through between them.
I also lost a radio antenna while out hunting jack-rabbits at night in a convertible.
No, PETA's concern for animals does not really exceed their concern for humans. PETA has no real concern for animals beyond the political exploitation that the issue affords.
It is very similar to a statement that I read from one of those Militant Lactivists. She said that everyone was missing the point, that their protests had nothing to do with what is good for a baby, that it was about equal rights. In other words, it's all strictly political, it's about restricting your rights in favor of the leftists.
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