PETA Asks Vermont Fish & Wildlife to Cancel Struggling 'Let's Go Fishing' Program

Fishing Teaches Children That Violence Is Acceptable, Says Group

For Immediate Release:
March 11, 2013

Contact:
Kaitlynn Kelly 202-483-7382

Burlington, Vt. -- After the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department released a statement requesting more volunteers for its "Let's Go Fishing" program, which aims to teach children and their families how to fish, PETA has asked the department to cancel "Let's Go Fishing" and allocate its funding to nonviolent educational youth programs.

"Teaching children to fish tells them that it's OK to inflict pain and suffering on someone who is different from them," says PETA Executive Vice President (and mom) Tracy Reiman. "Particularly at this impressionable young age, we should be teaching our children lessons about nonviolence, empathy, and acceptance."

PETA also points out that multiple scientific studies have concluded that fish feel pain acutely. Fish suffer while being held out of water just as humans would if drowning. Their mouths and lips are particularly sensitive, and fish who are caught and thrown back endure painful injuries and infections, and often die soon afterwards.

The money saved by canceling the "Let's Go Fishing" program could fund many recreational activities along Vermont's scenic waterways that would be safer for children and more humane for fish.

For more information, please visit PETA.org. To view PETA's new anti-fishing public service announcement starring Joaquin Phoenix, click here. 

PETA's letter to the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department follows.

March 11, 2013

Patrick Berry
Commissioner
Vermont Fish & Wildlife

Dear Commissioner Berry,

I am writing on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and our more than 3 million members and supporters, including thousands across Vermont, to respectfully urge you to cancel the "Let's Go Fishing" program for the sake of kids, parents, and the fish themselves, who suffer as a result of this misguided program.

The only lesson that fishing teaches children is that violence is acceptable when it is directed against those who don't look like them or are smaller and weaker than they are. Fish have particularly sensitive mouths and lips that they use in much the same way that we use our hands. Removing a hook often results in painful injuries to a fish's lips, throat, mouth, and/or face, which can easily become infected. Research shows that fish who are caught and thrown back into the water ("catch-and-release" fishing) often die from their injuries, stress, and/or the loss of their protective outer coating. If cats or dogs were the victims of similar abuse, the perpetrators could be thrown in jail for cruelty to animals. A lack of understanding and knowledge about fish, especially among young people, allows this cruelty to continue.

There is irrefutable scientific evidence that fish feel pain. The journal Fish and Fisheries cited more than 500 research papers on fish intelligence and concluded that fish are intelligent animals with sophisticated social structures. Dr. Donald Broom, scientific adviser to the British government, has said, "The scientific literature is quite clear. Anatomically, physiologically, and biologically, the pain system in fish is virtually the same as in birds and mammals." Furthermore, if participants use the "skills" that they acquire in the "Let's Go Fishing" program to catch fish to eat, they could be putting their health at risk. Fish flesh tends to contain large amounts of toxins, including mercury and PCBs, which accumulate in the bodies of people who eat them and can promote brain damage, cancer, and birth defects.

Please take a second look at this program and redirect this money and time to other useful, nonviolent state programs that everyone can get behind.

Sincerely,

Tracy Reiman
Executive Vice President
PETA