Update: I just heard from my friend Harald at PETA Germany that the kind soul who rescued the lobsters is a PETA Germany activist! So, if you’re reading this, anonymous German lobster-liberating activist: Danke! From der bottom of mein heart. It’s been a good month for lobsters. Well, insofar as it’s possible to have a … Read more »
People will cling on to the most unlikely notions if it means that they can keep doing something they enjoy but know deep down is wrong. And sad as it is to say, there are going to be people who continue to ignore or deny the fact that crustaceans feel pain despite mountains of evidence … Read more »
USAToday/Creative Commons This little saga started three or four months ago when First Daughter Jenna Bush was allegedly spotted chowing down on foie gras in a DC restaurant, and PETA President Ingrid Newkirk wrote her a very nice letter asking her to please not do that in future. Well, a couple of weeks ago, Texas … Read more »
Show me any animal, and I’ll show you someone who’s found a way to systematically torture and abuse them. For sharks, it’s the finning industry, which kills an estimated 100 million sharks a year, usually by simply hacking off the fins and tossing the animals back into the water to die. And sharks have an … Read more »
What’s the best way to draw attention to the suffering that fish are forced to endure when they’re yanked out of their natural environment and impaled on the end of a hook? It’s a very dangerous question to ask at a PETA brainstorming meeting. Because some of us are literalists, here at People for the … Read more »
Kidport/Creative Commons Yup, that’s right. It’s finally Fish Amnesty Day again! Fish Amnesty Day was created by PETA 10 years ago as a much less violent alternative to National Hunting and Fishing Day, which (by an amazing coincidence) happens to be on the same date. For some reason, fish are often the last animal people … Read more »
PETA India activists just held a protest outside Hotel Tunga Paradise, in a suburb of Mumbai, where a crab eating festival was taking place. My pal Nikunj told me that people were actually quite receptive, most never having thought of crabs as individuals who are capable of feeling pain when their legs are torn from … Read more »
Hunting has been on the decline for years, and CNN just reported that the latest numbers are that it’s down another 10% over the last ten years. Hunting in the water, err, I mean fishing, is also down around 15%. And call me crazy, but I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that while hunting and … Read more »
PETA Files reader Nancy W. just sent me her own version of the Mercury Poisoning fish billboard I wrote about last week. Here’s what she said: “I saw the blog today about the Mercury Poisoning billboard being rejected based on the image used, so I thought I’d pass along an idea for something that might … Read more »
Freshpage/Creative Commons There are a few old lighthouses on the East Coast being offered up free of charge to a nonprofit or other qualified entity under the Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000. So—of course—we’re applying for them. What international animal protection organization doesn’t need a lighthouse or two, right? The first of the lighthouses we … Read more »
I just got word from our media department that PETA’s latest billboard, which shows a patient in a Japanese hospital who suffered brain damage from mercury that was traced to contaminated fish, along with the tagline “Extreme Case of Mercury Poisoning: How Much Is in Your Fish?” was banned in Providence by all three of … Read more »
Yup, it’s about as dumb as it sounds. Apparently the World Wildlife Fund’s German affiliate has accepted 225,000 Euros for its fish conservation campaign that was raised by Unilever through the sale of fish sticks. I’ll spare you the letter we wrote them, since it feels like I’ve been putting a lot of letters on … Read more »
I just saw this Newsweek story about the latest trends in fishing and hunting. To put it in a nutshell, a five year U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service study just reported a sharp decline in the number of Americans participating in fishing and hunting. Interestingly enough, this doesn’t mean that people aren’t spending time in … Read more »
OK, I had to admit that I had my doubts when I heard the first rumblings about a giant “fish quilt” we were making to raise awareness about the fact that fish are intelligent, intriguing animals who feel pain just as all other animals do and that they don’t deserve to be violently killed for … Read more »
I don’t know about you, but I always get a little bristly when my “almost” vegetarian friends tell me that they “only eat fish.” Of course, I totally believe that nobody is perfect, myself included, and that every small step people take to help animals is important. I just don’t understand how fish got so … Read more »
