T-Town Nets a Whale of a Warning From PETA

For Immediate Release:
July 12, 2023

Contact:
Sara Groves 202-483-7382

A new message from PETA is making waves for ferry commuters by compelling them to consider the hidden costs of their fish fillets: The giant image points out that fish aren’t the only victims of the fishing industry—millions of other animals, known as “bycatch,” also die on its hooks and in its nets every year.

“Dolphins, sea turtles, birds, sharks, and other animals are all collateral damage to fishers and big trawlers alike,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA urges conscientious consumers to leave all animals off their plates, for the sake of animals and the planet.”

PETA notes that the killing of bycatch is one of the biggest threats to marine biodiversity worldwide and has resulted in widespread species extinction, habitat destruction, and irreversible damage to ocean ecosystems. The fishing industry is also terribly cruel to its intended victims: More fish are killed for food each year than all other animals combined. Fish feel pain as acutely as mammals do, have long-term memories, and sing underwater—yet they’re impaled, crushed, suffocated, dropped into pots of boiling water, or cut open and gutted, all while conscious.

The ad appears on a ferry docking at Point Defiance Ferry Terminal on N. Pearl Street.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” and which opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview—offers a free vegan starter kit to help people get hooked on vegan food. For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.