PETA Rallies Supporters to Get PETCO to Stop Sale of Wild-Caught Animals

Casualty Rate Exceeds 90 Percent After Fish Are Poisoned or Netted

For Immediate Release:
June 14, 2012

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Honolulu — As PETCO prepares to open a new store this weekend in Honolulu, PETA has posted an action alert on its popular website urging visitors to call on the company's CEO, James Myers, to stop PETCO's sale of wild-caught marine and other animals. PETCO sells 439 species of saltwater animals, almost all of whom were taken from their wild habitats, including many from Hawaiian waters. For each animal who survives long enough to be sold, nine animals die before ever reaching the store. PETA members will join with Honolulu-based Rescue Reef Alliance for a protest outside the grand opening of the new PETCO store at the Koko Marina Shopping Center in Honolulu from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 16.

"PETCO's trade in wild-caught animals means mass suffering and death," says PETA Director Martin Mersereau. "Like other animals sold by PETCO, fish—who experience fear and pain just as all animals do—should be allowed to live free in their natural habitat, not used as decorations and sentenced to life without parole inside a tank."

The captive-fish industry is responsible for the annual capture of more than 20 million fish, 12 million corals, and millions of other types of marine life. At least 95 percent of the gentle saltwater fish sold in pet shops have been cruelly captured from their natural homes in the wild, where trappers douse coral reefs with cyanide to stun the fish for easy capture. Half of the affected fish die painfully on the reef, and 40 percent of survivors die before they reach an aquarium. The poison also kills the reefs themselves as well as countless other animals who depend on the reefs.

In places where trappers don't use cyanide, such as in the waters of Hawaii, nets are used to capture the animals. Nearly 67 percent of animals caught with nets die from the stress or from starvation or from injuries, such as barotrauma, which occurs when animals are forced to surface too quickly; organ puncturing, which is done to eliminate the visible effects of barotraumas; and fin clipping, which is done to facilitate shipping the fish in plastic bags.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.