'Finding Nemo' used by animal rights groups to attack fish as food

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'Finding Nemo' used by animal rights groups to attack fish as food

 

 

By Laine Welch

For the Journal

 

 

KODIAK - Animal rights activists are using the popular animated film "Finding Nemo" to turn kids away from eating fish. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has won permission from Disney Studios to adapt a film poster from the movie that says, "Fish are friends, not food." It's being touted in brochures, six-foot-high fish creatures in parades and displays - even on Nemo pajamas. A spokesman said PETA hopes Nemo will teach children that fish belong in the ocean and not on dinner plates.

 

Another PETA ploy uses a sexy mermaid holding a sign that says "Don't batter me." PETA claims it is the largest animal rights group in the world, boasting some 600,000 members.

 

A check of PETA's Web site (fisharefriends.com or fishinghurts.com) reveals some of the most militant, anti-fish flack found anywhere. It says, for example, "the widely held public perception that seafood is healthy is one whopper of a fish story." The Web site tells kids "fish swim in poisonous places you'd never dream of having lunch." That "the flesh of fish is loaded with highly toxic chemical residues, and contain too much protein, fat and cholesterol to be healthy." (PETA even claims that salmon is 52 percent fat.) And that "no increased vigilance to reduce the slimy bacteria on their decomposing and pollution-laden bodies will improve their inadequate nutrition, or reduce the toxic chemicals laced throughout their flesh."

 

PETA even goes so far as to claim that women who often eat fish are "likely to give birth to sluggish infants with small heads and learning disabilities," and that nursing infants "consume half of their mothers' load of dioxin, PCB's and DDT from fish."

 

 

PETA also adds that fish "may not be cute and cuddly like puppies and kittens but they suffer and experience fear and pain in much the same way." PETA's campaign targets both recreational and commercial fishing to stop the "unnecessary torture of these animals by pointing out the cruelty of fishing and the health risks associated with eating fish." They sure can take the fun out of a great fish story. Sorry Nemo!

 

On another Nemo note: Trade reports say that children have a tendency to flush their pet fish down the drain to send them safely out into the sea, as shown in the movie. Manufacturers of sewage processing equipment continue to issue press releases telling kids that drain pipes do eventually lead to the ocean, but it is unlikely their fish will make it alive. They explain that the fish would first go through powerful machines that shred solids into tiny particles, followed by chlorine disinfecting.

 

 

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PETA Campaign Pitches Fish As Smart And Sensitive

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/11/

16/national1426EST0601.DTL

 

NEW YORK, U.S.A., November 16 2004: Animal-rights activists have

launched a novel campaign arguing that fish are intelligent, sensitive

animals no more deserving of being eaten than a pet dog or cat. Called

the Fish Empathy Project the campaign reflects a strategy shift by

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) as it challenges a

diet component widely viewed as nutritious and uncontroversial, says

this article. "No one would ever put a hook through a dog's or cat's

mouth," said Bruce Friedrich, PETA's director of vegan outreach. "Once

people start to understand that fish, although they come in different

packaging, are just as intelligent, they'll stop eating them."

 

PETA has campaigned for years against sport fishing and has joined

other critics in decrying the high levels of mercury or other toxins in

many fish and the pollution discharged by many fish farms. The Empathy

Project is a departure in two respects--attempting to depict the

standard practices of commercial fishing as cruel and seeking to

convince consumers that there are ethical reasons for not eating fish.

The project was inspired by several recent scientific studies detailing

facets of fish intelligence. Oxford University researcher Theresa Burt

. Perera, for example, reported that the blind Mexican cave fish is

able to interpret water pressure changes to construct a detailed mental

map of its surroundings."Most people dismiss fish as dim-witted

pea-brains. ... Yet this is a great fallacy," wrote University of

Edinburgh biologist Culum Brown in the June edition of New Scientist.

"In many areas, such as memory, their cognitive powers match or exceed

those of 'higher' vertebrates, including non-human primates."

 

To press their argument, PETA activists plan demonstrations starting

next month at selected seafood restaurants nationwide. PETA also will

urge changes in commercial fishing practices. Friedrich questioned why

there is popular support for sparing marine mammals--dolphins and

porpoises--yet minimal concern for species like tuna, "whose suffering

would warrant felony animal cruelty charges if they were mammals."

Friedrich acknowledges the difficulty of changing long-held customs,

but thinks his project is worthwhile. "We'd rather go too far than not

far enough," he said.