PETA Global Issue 2

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Fish Illustration: © iStock.com/danleap

oo PETAWorks to End Cruelty to Sea Animals

THE BIG FISH UE

T here’s no excuse: Countless studies show that fish feel pain and pleasure, are intelligent, have long-termmemories, communicate with one another, use tools, recognize individual human beings, and more. Octopuses have even been known to hold grudges – expressed by sending jets of water at humans they don’t like, for instance, but not at the ones they do. Lobsters use complicated signals to explore their surroundings and establish social relationships. Shrimp are social beings who use sound or polarized light to communicate. Some live in complex colonies similar to beehives, and some mate for life. Yet many people still don’t recognize that each of these beings is an individual – a “who,” not a “what.” That’s where PETA comes in: Through provocative displays, eye-catching protests, clever campaigns, fishless fillet giveaways, and other consciousness-raising actions, PETA is helping the public to see that fish, octopuses, and other marine animals are sea life, not seafood – and deserve to be left in peace.

“In the end, pain is pain: That species’ sensory systems differ one from the other (and from ours) doesn’t change that fact a bit, as is abundantly clear in the emerging consensus about the ability of fish to feel pain even though they lack the mammalian neocortex. No animal need be sentient like us to be sentient, just as no animal need be smart like us to be smart or feel emotions like ours to be known as a feeling being with a distinct and sometimes vivid personality.”

— Dr. Barbara J. King, author of Personalities on the Plate: The Lives and Minds of Animals We Eat

‘Mermaids’ and a ‘Hooked’ Human Take Over Empathy Center

Guests were greeted by “Freeda Fish,” the evening’s mascot, before getting a fish-eye view of the world. A “hooked” woman, Victoria LeMeow, suspended from the ceiling illustrated the excruciating pain that fish endure when they are caught, while “mermaids” described how fish communicate and interact with one another. Also on display was PETA’s colorful Fish Empathy Quilt, measuring more than 300 square feet and consisting of more than 100 decorative squares – each sewn by a PETA supporter to honor the billions of fish who are abused and killed by humans every year.

PETA’s Empathy Center in Los Angeles hosted an interactive Fish Empathy Exhibit that included provocative live demonstrations, a video screening, and tasty vegan fish tacos. Acclaimed biologist, animal behaviorist, and ethicist Jonathan Balcombe also took to the stage for a special reading from his new book, What a Fish Knows: The Inner Lives of Our Underwater Cousins, followed by a Q&A session and a book signing.

16 DON’T TAKE THE BAIT