PETA to FOX: Gordon Ramsay Can Scream, but the Animals He Cooks Can't

Group's New 'Silent Scream' Video Reminds Chefs That Might Doesn't Make Right—Regardless of the Victims' Species

For Immediate Release:
May 30, 2012

Contact:
Shakira Croce 202-483-7382

Los Angeles — Thanks to host Gordon Ramsay, there's plenty of screaming on FOX's Hell's Kitchen—but for every meal prepared on the show, there are countless screams that go unheard: those of the fish whose bodies are cut up, cooked, and plated. That's why PETA has fired off a letter to FOX to ask for space to air the group's hard-hitting new anti-bullying TV spot, "Silent Scream," during the June 4 season premiere.

As PETA explains in the letter, "Silent Scream" is an effort to instill empathy for animals, specifically fish, who are widely misunderstood and killed for both food and "sport." The video shows scenes of bullying and violence—including a schoolboy beaten and kicked by two bigger kids and an elderly woman who is being mugged—each of which ends with a heartrending scream from the victim. In the final scene, a fish, slowly suffocating to death on a cutting board, gasps one last time—but as the ad states, "Some screams can't be heard."

PETA is also encouraging its members to tweet links to the video to celebrity chefs, including Ramsay, Emeril Lagasse, Paula Deen, and Mario Batali.

"It may be easier to identify with our favorite Hell's Kitchen contestants than with the fish they fillet and sauté, but fish feel pain and fear, and they suffer enormously when they are impaled, crushed, suffocated, or cut open and gutted, all while they're fully conscious ," says PETA Senior Vice President Lisa Lange. "PETA's 'Silent Scream' video tells viewers that it's never right to hurt others simply because they are weaker than we are and can't speak up for themselves—regardless of what species they happen to be."

Biologists have found that fish develop relationships with each other. Some fish are capable of using tools, while others gather information by eavesdropping. These intelligent, sensitive animals are so good-natured that Dr. Sylvia Earle, the world's leading marine biologist, said, "I wouldn't deliberately eat a grouper any more than I'd eat a cocker spaniel."

For more information, please visit PETA.org.