Written by Michelle Kretzer
Lasse Hallström's Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, starring Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt, might not sound like a film that would be fishing for praise from PETA, but the filming of the drama went swimmingly, thanks to fake fish.
This isn't the first time that fake fish have made a splash on the big screen. A River Runs Through It, directed by Robert Redford, and Wolfgang Petersen's The Perfect Storm both got two fins up for not using real fish.
Animatronic and computer-generated animals are getting starring roles in more and more films, such as Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Big Miracle, because people who care about animals refuse to tolerate cruelty in the entertainment industry.
Fishing's stars are reeling in the animal accolades too. Both Emily Blunt and Ewan McGregor love their companion dogs, and Emily has been known to enjoy a vegan meal, while Ewan donated an autographed picture to an animal shelter's fundraiser.
Fake fish aren't just enjoyable onscreen—fantastic faux-fish dishes make for dinner and a movie that fish can get behind.
Written by PETA
Do you know what you're seeing when you look at seafood? It seems that most of us don't. When Consumer Reports tested 190 different samples of fish from restaurants and stores, they found that more than 20 percent were being marketed as something other than what they actually were. A similar investigation by the Boston Globe found that as much as 48 percent of fish flesh is mislabeled.
The findings will no doubt dismay people who try to buy only species of fish that they think are sustainable. But "sustainable" is simply a marketing buzzword that the seafood industry likes to use. Eating any fish at all contributes to the decimation of the ocean's ecosystem.
© Alaska Fisheries Science Center
The massive nets and long-lines used by factory fishing trawlers are indiscriminate in what types of fish they catch, and fishers simply toss overboard the dead or dying dolphins, sea turtles, and other "bycatch" they don't want. Farmed fish such as salmon and sea bass are often carnivorous, so many pounds of wild fish must be caught to feed those on farms.
Whether the label on the package matches the fish under the cellophane, one thing we can be sure of is that the flesh we are eating came from an intelligent animal with a unique personality who did not want to be gutted alive or suffocated. If we can eat faux fish, such as Vegieworld's codfish, salmon, shrimp, and tuna, that tastes the same, is free of harmful toxins like mercury and PCBs, and doesn't claim any animals' lives, why not?
Written by Michelle Sherrow
Although I'm now a writer, my parents raised me to be a hooker—and my dad was even a preacher, for heaven's sake! OK, I'm talking about hooking fish, which, while it may not be "the world's oldest profession," is long overdue for retirement.
Unfortunately, PETA wasn't around when I was a kid to help prevent me from getting caught up in the abuse of aquatic animals. But a brand-new anti-fishing campaign launched at the Seattle waterfront on Tuesday aims to do that for today's kids. Seattle was picked for the first of a series of PETA actions leading up to Saturday's National Fish Amnesty Day after being named one of the top 11 urban fishing cities in North America.
Many people stopped to take our leaflets and talk to the demonstrators. Some were so intrigued that they asked in-depth questions about how fish suffer when they are impaled in the mouth and pulled into an environment where they cannot breathe. These curious folks left agreeing that fishing is wrong. If two animal advocates can change these people's minds, what could PETA's 2 million members and supporters do?
All parents who fish send their kids the dangerous message that it's entertaining to torment and abuse animals. Want to raise your kids to be compassionate toward fish instead of cruel? PETA can hook you up!
Written by Jeff Mackey
A group of Tibetan Buddhists now have 534 times the good karma—for their good intentions, anyway. The group gathered at the fishing hub of Gloucester, Massachusetts, on the anniversary of the first sermon that Buddha taught, and they purchased 534 lobsters, sailed out into the Atlantic, and set them free. One lobster liberator said: "It's rethinking the way you normally see these creatures. You're supposed to view them equally. Their happiness is as important as your happiness, their suffering is as important as your suffering."
The group's hearts were in the right place, and the lobsters undoubtedly appreciated a second chance at freedom. But the seafood wholesaler they purchased the animals from profited from the sale and will no doubt continue plying his trapping trade, while the lobsters risk being caught again and ending up in a pot of boiling water. PETA sent a letter to the group suggesting that instead of purchasing lobsters next year, they could potentially save even more animals by asking all their members to go vegan for a day—and preferably beyond.
Considering that every vegan saves more than 100 animals a year, going vegan is one of the most important things that any of us can do to prevent suffering. Get started improving your karma today by ordering a free vegetarian/vegan starter kit.
If you're going to abuse animals, you might want to wear some protective clothing:
A fed-up rooster who was forced to fight one cockfight too many picks on somebody who is not his own size.
A marlin uses his spiked snout to show an angler how it feels to get jabbed in the mouth.
A green mamba shows an Arkansas snake fancier that captivity really bites.
A notorious exotic-animal smuggler gets shell-shocked by a turtle he is attempting to capture.
PETA U.K.'s billboard asking anglers if they are "overcompensating" for something hit a little too close to home for some fishers. Fortunately, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the agency that reviews all ad complaints in the U.K., has a better sense of humor than do the angry anglers—it gave the billboard the all-clear.
Says ASA spokesperson Rob Griggs, "Our decision was that we acknowledged the intended humour, and we felt that it was unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence."
Guys who get off on impaling animals' mouths with hooks and leaving them to slowly suffocate are definitely short on at least one thing: compassion.
Written by Christine Becknell
The University of Alabama at Birmingham is the first of several colleges whose president has been asked by PETA to eliminate the school's fishing team. We know what you're asking yourself: "There are actually enough boys on several college campuses trying to compensate for their below-the-belt shortcomings to start fishing teams?" Of course, they must be compensating for something. After all, why else would they participate in a "sport" in which you handle a long rod and take out your aggressions on animals who are about a hundredth of your size—in this case by tearing through their mouths with hooks and watching them thrash about and slowly suffocate, just as you would if you were in their element?
Wondering how you measure up when it comes to rod vs. rod? Take this 10-second online poll to find out.
Written by Joe Taksel
Over the weekend, all the contestants in Milwaukee's Brew City Salmon Tournament got a little something to take home with them—even if they didn't manage to hook, suffocate, and kill any sea kittens.
PETA took to the skies over Lake Michigan with an airplane banner urging tournament participants to look at angling from a different angle by imagining if the shoe were on the other foot (fin?).
So maybe the message isn't about shoes and feet so much as about turning the other cheek? Of course, if it had been up to me, I'd have gone with a banner asking the question on everyone's mind: Do anglers have small rods?
To show the world that you have a big heart (among other organs) when it comes to fish, start here.
Sure, factory farms are mechanized madness but have you ever thought about how computers drive the insanity? I worked in software development before coming to PETA but never considered the ways that the software could be used to hurt or kill animals. Almost everything seems to depend on computers today—from running increasingly automated factory farms and slaughterhouses to tracking fish using sonar and satellites to guiding deadly missiles to their targets.
Thankfully, software developer Anders Sundman has been looking out for animals on the techie front and has joined up with PETA to create the Harm-Less Permissive License (HPL), the first-ever license that will prohibit the use of software being used in any way that will harm humans or animals. Anders originally developed the license for personal use but decided to release it to the public because "having seen images from inside slaughterhouses and modern fishing vessels it is obvious to me just how dependent these industries are on technology and computer software."
PETA will be contacting compassionate developers to encourage them to use the free and open-source legal text to ensure that their products aren't used for harmful purposes. You can help by making sure the geeks and code jockeys in your life—especially if you are one—know about the HPL, and push them to include the HPL in any software they have developed or plan on developing. Then take your own swipe at the murderous meat industry by going vegan.
The tables may have turned on a German angler recently. A man ended up with fishing hooks in his rear end after he apparently broke into a hunting and fishing store and fell on the hooks. Police were able to reel him in quickly because he was drunk (shocking, I know) and couldn't run very fast with barbed hooks in his behind.
How's that for karma? Hopefully he'll think twice about picking up a rod and reel now that he knows how much hooks hurt! Or will he need a few through his lips first?
Written by Heather Moore
If you have a general question for PETA and would like a response, please e-mail Info@peta.org. If you need to report cruelty to an animal, please click here. If you are reporting an animal in imminent danger and know where to find the animal and if the abuse is taking place right now, please call your local police department. If the police are unresponsive, please call PETA immediately at 757-622-7382 and press 2.
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