Mass Killing of Sick Salmon at Local Hatchery Prompts Vegan Memorial From PETA
For Immediate Release:
June 10, 2024
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
To memorialize the more than 31,000 salmon at Harrietta State Fish Hatchery who were reportedly killed using carbon dioxide and dumped in a pit after they contracted bacterial kidney disease, PETA plans to place a sky-high message near the site reminding everyone that the victims were thinking, feeling individuals who suffered immensely only because people wanted to eat them.
“Fish feel fear and pain, just as dogs, cats, and humans do, yet these salmon were slowly suffocated and discarded like garbage,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA urges everyone to have sympathy for salmon and other fish and to please go vegan.”
On aquafarms, fish spend their entire lives in cramped, filthy enclosures and many, like these salmon, contract diseases or die early from parasitic infections and debilitating injuries. Those who survive are starved for days before they’re sent to slaughter, where they’re impaled, crushed, suffocated, or cut open and gutted—often while they’re still conscious. Each person who goes vegan spares the lives of nearly 200 animals—including aquatic ones—every year. PETA’s free vegan starter kit can help those looking to make the switch.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
