Tackle Shop Under Attack From Fish Ad

New PETA Campaign Challenges the Idea of Speciesism: That It’s OK for Humans to Use Their Power to Pick on Vulnerable Animals

For Immediate Release:
November 20, 2019

Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382

“We Also Feel Pain, Love, Joy, and Fear”—that fish have feelings is the message from the fish on a new PETA billboard that just went up across the street from Jack’s Bait & Tackle Shop.

The ad is part of a national campaign against speciesism: the old belief that—despite their extraordinary abilities, emotions, and intelligence—all other animal species are inferior to our own and that it’s acceptable to exploit them.

“When it comes to feeling pain and fear and valuing their own lives, a fish is no different from you and me,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA’s billboard encourages everyone to fight speciesism by valuing all animals for who they are as individuals—and keeping them off our plates.”

Numerous studies have confirmed that fish have unique personalities, can recognize human faces, and can retain memories and think ahead. But because of human prejudice—and even though more fish are killed for food each year than all other animals combined—they have no legal protection from abuse. These animals suffer immensely when hooked through their sensitive mouths or dragged out of the ocean in huge nets in which they can suffocate or be crushed to death—and the throats and stomachs of those who survive are cut open on the decks of fishing boats.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—offers a free vegan starter kit (plus recipes for delicious fish-free dishes) on its website.

PETA’s billboard is located at 4165 Bonny Oaks Dr., right across the street from Jack’s Bait & Tackle Shop. For more information, please visit PETA.org.