PETA is enemy of anglers

Source: Knight Ridder
PETA is enemy of anglers

Chicago Tribune

By Lew Freedman

CHICAGO _ Go fishing. Take a kid fishing. Go out for a seafood dinner.

That is the best retaliation for PETA’s latest quirky, angler-insulting, ridiculous anti-fishing campaign.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, who declared last Saturday “Fish Amnesty Day,” are seeking to make every day fish amnesty day and now are urging fishermen to turn in their rods and reels, to hang up their tackle.

I can’t imagine anyone who enjoys fishing actually surrendering his or her gear to PETA for use in anti-fishing demonstrations. Most fishermen would burn their gear rather than donate it to PETA.

As a reminder to outdoorsmen _ as if they need it _ PETA opposes hunting, fishing and trapping and seeks to eradicate all of those activities. PETA also opposes dog mushing, rodeo and the circus.

More recently, PETA seems to have adopted the notion everyone in the world should become vegetarians. The group recently poked fun at actor John Goodman and opera singer Luciano Pavarotti, whom they consider overweight, and demanded they change their eating habits.

Now PETA has concluded fish feel pain and are being tortured when caught, even by fishermen who catch and release.

This is just another absurd example of PETA equating a lower species on the food chain with humans.

PETA’s premise is that all animals are warm and cuddly. The organization even has someone on staff with the title of “Fish Empathy Project Manager.”

“There’s nothing sporting about luring defenseless animals to their deaths with the promise of food,” Fish Empathy specialist Karin Robertson said in a PETA press release.

Sometimes PETA supporters just make the looniest statements.

On the group’s Web site, Sylvia Earle, described as the former chief scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is quoted as saying, “I never eat anyone I know personally. I wouldn’t eat a grouper any more than I’d eat a cocker spaniel. They’re so good-natured, so curious.”

Grouper?

“You know,” she said, “fish really are sensitive. They have personalities. They hurt when they’re wounded.”

How does she know?

PETA has a long way to go to persuade Americans to hang up their fishing tackle.

About 34 million people fish in the United States and pour $36 billion annually into the economy. Fishermen _ as well as hunters and other outdoorsmen _ are the greatest contributors to preserving the environment. Money spent on licenses and other fees contributes mightily to habitat restoration and aiding wildlife species.

It is worth noting that if there was no hunting or fishing in the United States, the existence of many animals and fish would be threatened.

Taxpayers don’t have the will or commitment to spend millions and billions of extra dollars funding those programs being underwritten by sportsmen.

Beyond that, the glut of certain species in specific areas would result in too many deer, elk, black bears and the like competing for too little food. Without fishermen taking their share of fish , the ecological balance of a lake or river would be altered.

Not long ago, I gave a speech to a group of Chicago fishermen. I had been asked by the coordinator to discuss animal-rights organizations, but when I brought it up, one angler said he never hears anything about groups opposed to fishing.

I was surprised. PETA’s recent activities should put all fishermen on alert that there are organizations pouring resources into eliminating their hobby.

Jim,

PETA members are a strange breed indeed. From what I understand, they don’t even agree with catch and release. PETA has it’s roots in the liberal left and they are huge backers of John Kerry.

If memory serves me, I think it was about 10 years ago now when a group from PETA staged a deer hunting protest at Blue Mound State Park in south central Wisconsin. They harrassed the hunters and made it virtually impossible to hunt. I thought that it was ironic that less than 3 years later the same area became infested with CWD. The Wisconsin DNR held special hunts in that same area in an attempt to kill off the infected deer herd. I know that many of us look at organizations such as PETA as being nothing more than a bunch of idiots (which they are) but if we elect the Hollywood Left type politicians to office, groups like PETA could become much more of a problem.

Eyehunter

Get it straight from the horse’s mouth. If you think the talk about PETA is just hyperbole, read for yourself what PETA thinks about fishing on their website:

PETA Nofishing.net

It is bizzare and frightening.

Dave

I put this on with no political motives. I just feel that we as fishermen are one of the largest groups in this country. If we keep aware of these idiots we may be able to keep them from reaching even a tiny bit of there goals.

JIM

All I have to say is “F#@$ PETA”

I saw a bumper sticker that said “Eat a PETA Member and Save a Cow.”

Seems reasonable!

As I told my PETA co-workers many times, “I’m a little crabby today. I need to kill something.” Needless to say, not everyone was unhappy to see me retire. Try it, it works.

If you look at PETA’s anti-fishing website, they claim that there are three verses in the bible that say there originally were no fish when the 5 loaves and 2 fish were used to feed the 5000. They listed Matthew 16:9-10, Mark 8:19-20, and John 6:26 as verses that say there were no fish. I looked up these verses, and sure enough in Matthew, the fish was never talked about. In Mark the verse they listed only mentions the bread but if you read earlier in the chapter, it mentions the 2 fish. Again, in John the fish arent mentioned in the verse they gave but they are mentioned earlier in the chapter.
I wonder what other kind of false information they like to give to the public to convince people to join their little club. Now I think its time to go have some steak and eggs wth a big glass of milk. Screw you PETA.

PETA can kiss my big, fat, lily white
Everything we do in our lives is for our own personal reasons. Be it eating a cow, fishing for fun/ or the once in awhile fish – fry. If they don’t eat meat, hunt or fish, you can bet that there is something in their life that they do that would urine some other group off. No one is perfect, so just let people be – let us live our lives the way we want. And I’ll be damn if I am handing over all my fishing stuff. Hell, it’s not even going to get willed to someone when I die, where ever it is I am going, my fishing stuff is going with me.

Hey carpgirl…there is something they do in their lives to urine other groups off. They want anglers to give up their gear.

I can’t remember if I posted this before or not, but last winter PETA members waited outside a performance of the Nutcracker and handed pamphlets out to kids who’s mothers were wearing fur.

(Caution, parental advisory)

Source

Notice they weren’t at Bike Week in Daytona handing out things like this to leather-bound hoggers. These people are so far out of the mainstream as to require legitimate psycological treatment. After Sept 11th, one of the leaders in the PETA movement (can’t remember if it was Newkirk or Singer) published a letter in which it was implied that the deaths of the Pentagon and WTC paled in comparison with the ‘billions of broiler chickens’ that were killed in 2001 alone.

Another example of PETA kindness.
Hey Brian, got an opinion on these guys or what?

To be fair, they might all be lining up behind Kerry, but that doesn’t mean he endorses anything they say or do. I’m sure that Mr Kerry and Mr Edwards would both be offended by the actions described above.

PETA is anti-fishing, anti-hunting, against pet ownership, livestock of any kind (cattle, hogs, furbearing, etc). They’re welcome to their views, but if they hand something like that to my kid, they can expect to lose the hand it came from.

Quote:

---

A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy.
— Ingrid Newkirk
President, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

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Really? Maybe your boy Ms Newkirk… try it with mine and see what happens.

Nobody has spoke up yet so I must do it I cant help it I support PETA.
PEOPLE EATING TASTY ANIMALS
There I said it
As a wise man said once, Cows wouldnt even exist if we didnt eat them, its not like the live in the wild there a domestic animal

If I let my disgust take over, I’d just as soon set fire to everything attached this group as I would be to pouring a glass of milk at my breakfast table………but I choose pity instead. I find it sad that there is a group of this size that has completely lost their identity and purpose as human beings.

I find it shocking that they’d bother trying to use scripture to back their cause. You can’t even get past the first chapter of the first book (Genesis) without reading how Adam was created in His (God’s) image, and that he would rule over all the earth’s creatures. To rule…….. hmmm……… that means we control. We decide. We oversee. We manage. We’ve been ordained, if you will, to rule over ALL of earth’s creatures! How about all the lamb sacrifices in the B.C. era? How about Samson tying torches to the tails of two foxes to run through the crops of the Philistines? Killing a donkey to use the jawbone as a weapon? How about Esau being a man of the woods and Jacob a man of the house. Esau hunted venison! HELLO!!!! Parable of the Prodigal Son…… when the prodigal son returned home, his father called the servants to kill the fatted calf so that they could celebrate the return of his “lost” son? These examples are readily found throughout the Bible so if they’re going to twist the scriptures, it really shows how misguided they are. Revelation posts warnings to all who add or take from it’s contents. I’d dare say they have no regard or respect for the Bible or it’s contents……. they certainly don’t seem to comprehend it……… which is another topic so I’ll let it go here. It’s just clear that they’re desperate, and desperately clueless.

I have to ask myself…….. how they feel about themselves? If my mom put me on the same value level as a dog…… I think I’d have some self-esteem challenges. What arguable value to they bring to the earth as people? If all creatures are left to live as they do, do you think they’ll form a peace treaty or write a declaration for equal living? If sporting fish is unethical, should be start jailing otters, cats, and bears? Who polices this ridiculous notion?

You know…… they call it unethical treatment yet we’re kinder than their own world is to them. We do preserve. We do protect. We do put the fish back. Better a sore lip than a beached carcus….. wouldn’t you say?

What a great country we live in! Where else in the world would a group like this “survive”?

Their underlying motivation has always been to change everyone into vegatarians. This is not a secret.

My thoughts of PETA started long before their “attacks” on chickens and KFC. Other restaurants ect use the same chicken supplyers as KFC, but since we use more chicken than anyone else in the world…they go for the big boys.

Personally I thiink everyone should spend a year on a farm while growing up. It’s amazing how many school kids think that chicken “grows” in the the shape of a drumstick…

I believe Ecnook pointed out to me last year that I shouldn’t go to their website. The number of hits gives them more power.

It’s hard to know if a person should or at the uninformed….whackos.

PS Fish are our friends.

[post deleted in its entirity by Gianni, who doesn’t like to look like a PETA supporter]

Maybe going to their website does give them more power and maybe it doesn’t. I think that if you want to build a soild arguement against them that you have to visit their site and learn what claims they are making. If you just get information from other people and not directly from the people making the claims, the information is not always reliable and your argument is not valid.

Sorry for bringing stuff i learned in a class i hated to the board, but I think its something that everyone needs to think about.

I feel that going to their website doesnt give them more power, but givess us more power because we learn what LIES they are trying to pass as factual information. Now how many more days til deer season???

Skippy,

Grab a bow and deer season is already in session buddy!

Sorry…….. I’m just excited to be in the woods during this time of year!