Local Boating Shop Unwitting Host to Fishy PETA Plea

For Immediate Release:
August 1, 2023

Contact:
Nicole Perreira 202-483-7382

To show boaters who they’ll be killing if they go fishing this summer, PETA has placed a new sky-high appeal just feet away from local fishing supply store and boat dealership Gone Fishin’ Marine, putting a face to anglers’ victims and asking everyone to cast off their meat-eating ways.

“Research is unequivocal that catfish, striped bass, and other finned beings have personalities, feel pain, and value their lives just as those trying to hook them do,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA encourages boaters to set off on a vegan voyage this summer by turning in their rods and getting hooked on the pledge not to harm wildlife.”

Fish feel pain, share knowledge, have long memories, and have cultural traditions. Some woo potential partners by creating intricate works of art in the sand on the ocean floor, yet more fish are killed for food each year than all other animals combined. They’re impaled, crushed, suffocated, or cut open and gutted—often while they’re completely conscious.

Each person who goes vegan saves the lives of nearly 200 animals (including aquatic ones) every year. To get locals started, PETA offers a free vegan starter kit on its website and notes that many vegan fish options are available today, including Gardein’s F’sh Filets, Good Catch’s Fish-Free Tuna, New Wave Foods’ new plant-based shrimp, and Sophie’s Kitchen’s Vegan Crab Cakes.

The billboard is located along I-80 eastbound, next to Gone Fishin’ Marine at 1880 N. Lincoln St., Dixon.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.