PETA Dives Into Airbnb’s ‘Night at the Shark Aquarium’ Contest

Instead of Sleeping, Animal Rights Group Would Use the Evening to Make Plans to Protect Sharks From the Most Dangerous Predators: Humans

For Immediate Release:
April 1, 2016

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Since Airbnb is offering the opportunity to spend a night in an underwater room surrounded by sharks at France’s Aquarium de Paris, PETA is throwing its hat in the ring. In a contest entry submitted today, PETA pledges to use the time in the “tank” to show the sharks that there are people in the world who do not wish them harm, despite the fact that while only 98 people were bitten by sharks in 2015—and only six were killed—more than 100 million sharks are killed by humans every year for their fins.

“PETA wants to take a bite out of this opportunity by helping to protect sharks, who are too often slaughtered for their fins or inaccurately cast as dangerous threats to humans,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “As animal rights activists, we never sleep, so we’ll spend the hours discussing how to make human beings less predatory and keep them away from the seafood buffet.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat or abuse in any other way”—notes that every year, humans kill and consume more fish than all other animals combined. Most fish in restaurants and supermarkets are caught using huge commercial fishing nets. When hauled up from the deep (along with dolphins, turtles, seals, and other “trash catch”), fish—who, studies show, feel pain and fear just as all animals do—are often crushed to death, and their eyeballs bulge out of their heads from the sudden pressure change. Others are still alive when they’re gutted.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.