PETA’s Pro-Shark Banner to Fly Over Santa Barbara County Beaches

Group Responds to Shark Sighting With Warning About the Real Predators in the Water

For Immediate Release:
July 5, 2013

Contact:
Sophia Charchuk 202-483-7382

Santa Barbara, Calif. — After a 12-foot great white shark made contact with a kayak in which two men were fishing near Refugio State Beach in Santa Barbara County on June 29, officials closed the waters off Refugio, Tajiguas, and El Capitán state beaches. PETA wants to make sure that everyone understands that the waters really are teeming with dangerous predators who kill without a second thought: humans. That’s why the group will fly a banner over the beaches to raise awareness of the plight of sea animals who are killed for food. The banner reads, “Dangerous Predator in Water: YOU! Go Vegan.”

When:   Saturday, July 6

Where:  Over Refugio, Tajiguas, and El Capitán state beaches, Santa Barbara County

“Sharks are much more likely to be attacked by humans than the other way around,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “The most dangerous predators of all can be found lined up at a restaurant’s all-you-can-eat buffet.”

While sharks killed fewer than a dozen people last year, humans kill and consume more than 100 million sharks and billions of other sea animals each year. PETA wants people who are concerned about predators in the water to think about the terror and pain that sharks experience as they bleed to death after their fins are hacked off to be made into “delicacies” such as shark-fin soup and shark steak. Many species of sharks and other fish have been devastated by overfishing. According to an international team of scientists, 29 percent of fish species have “collapsed,” or declined by 90 percent.

For more information, please visit PETA.org or click here.