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Asserting that the practice of lobbing fish above the heads of patrons and tourists at the market and other venues is disrespectful to creatures that already have gone through a lot, an animal rights group is protesting plans to stage a flying-fish exhibition at an upcoming national veterinarians conference in Seattle.
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Well, I don't eat kitten, and I have yet to find a butcher who will throw the lamb around in the same way.
They do not kill the fish so that they can toss the body around. They kill the fish so that people can eat them. At least the fish is providing entertainment as well as food for people.
I, for one, would be eager to snap a photo if a gutted PETA member was sailing over my head.
What a load. PETA would get more sympathy out of regular people if they'd drop this kind of nonsense. I love animals and don't eat them, but PETA annoys the crap out of me. There are bigger battles to fight than this kind of useless nonsense.
PETA is such a PITA.
Makes me want to buy a fish and play catch with it in front of a bunch of PETAphiles just to piss them off.
Then I'd throw it away, because I've been a vegetarian for more than 30 years and I don't eat fish.
As an update to this story, the ,AVMA has said they will go ahead with the demonstration.
Won't somebody please think of the plants?!
First: The fish aren't killed to be thrown, they're killed to be eaten. Who doesn't like a good food-fight?
Second: If someone were lobbing dead cats around, I think hundreds of people with cameras would flock to it.
Third: PETA is against pets. Period. So if you have a pet and you give money to PETA, they look down on you but will accept your hard-earned money.
I wouldn't be surprised if they think training guide-dogs for the blind is cruel.
Plain and simple: If man wasn't supposed to eat meat, why did God give us slaughterhouses?
I guess I know who PETA's least-favorite muppet was.
how does PETA feel about the huge vacuum hoses used to empty fish holds?
I can get behind no cruelty to animals or people, I can support protecting rare species, I can believe in the need for people to think about where their food comes from, I might even slide over to a vegan/vegetarian diet one day - but I HAVE to say to PETA: Learn. Learn or die. What you are doing is not working. You are pissing people off and hurting an overall good cause. Sometimes your behaviour makes me wonder if PETA isn't secretly run by the beef industry.
I think, #1, that the deeper issue PETA has here is not if the fish, in death, is fulfilling its monetary worth by being eaten as well as to entertain, but more with the mind state it requires and promotes to toss corpses about for the purpose of entertainment.
-L
More correctly: If god didn't want us to eat animals, he wouldn't have made them out of meat.
But remember that fish, as well as all the animals, can feel and definitely deserve some respect. Even after (a completely unnecessary, in my opinion) death. It's enough to imagine a cannibal market. Now, would you like to watch the corpses being tossed around? Still amusing?
Maximilian 7: I wouldn't be surprised if they think training guide-dogs for the blind is cruel.
They'd say it's slavery. They think dogs are enslaved by humans. This is fairly true; they just don't get how totally beside the point it is.
And I knew a PETAphile once who had a dog. She called it a "friend," not a pet, and fed it a vegetarian diet. In an unrelated story, it got cancer and died.
I yield to none in my disdain for PETA, but the comments so far are nearly as depressing as the organization. PETA is actually right about the unacceptability of the fish tossing but for the wrong reasons. I live in Seattle and I haven't bought fish at that market for 30 years. No one I know who is serious about food buys their fish there. What a way to treat a nice piece of food. Strictly for the rubes.
if PETA thinks fish have been "through a lot" before getting tossed around a fish market, they have no idea the journey ahead of them in my digestive tract. what my body does to fish is weapons grade.
...and what a cheap shock value, going with "dead kittens" flying over your head. really? i mean, it's not like they're dropping the fish... or just killing fish to play catch with them, and throwing them away.
i think PETA misses the point most of the time, and it's hard to respect an org. run by someone who wants to be turn into a purse after she dies to make a statement. straight jacket, size medium please.
CCH 11: Now imagine a whole bunch of humans kept under the sea and otherwise left completely alone. They all drown, right? So you can't do that to fish either.
Kid Geezer13: I wasn't under the impression that the thrown fish were then sold as food. I thought they were an advertising expense, likely discarded afterwards.
Ashley Byrne, senior campaigner for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in Washington, D.C said:
No, we go out in boats and harvest these renewable resources for human consumption - they get tossed around as part of their journey to the table. She can't honestly think the purpose of the fishing industry is to collect fish so they can be killed and tossed in the air... If that was the reason, we'd keep them alive so we could enjoy the twitching and gasping as they hurtle through the fish market - it would be a more interesting show...
@11
What about the plants? They obviously don't feel as we do, but does that mean they don't feel? Do not some plants react to touch? Do not some plants seek the warmth and the light of the sun? Do not some plants desperately grow away from damaging things?
As such, I would argue that we immediately stop the cruel mass murder of plants that occurs on our fields daily!
We cannot stand idly by any longer!
I don't have any problems with the idea of watchdog group for the ethical treatment of (living!) animals, since checks and balances are usually a good thing, but this is idiotic.
I hear the fish market was offering up a change in practice by throwing rubber fish instead. I immediately began to wonder (even hope) if this was a hollow, BS compromise to highlight the silliness of the situation.
Well it is kind of gross to have a dead fish lobbed over your head and goodness knows I would be upset if one landed on me. But I'm against pretty much anything PETA wants.
I wrote my 15 before seeing 14. Let me just say this: I do think it's OK to kill fish for food, even though I choose not to eat them myself. What objections I might have had to the fish-tossing were based on the wasting of food, and are pretty firmly silenced by PETA acting the way they do.
Actually, I'd bet the tossed fish, even if they're discarded afterwards, are less than 10% of the wastage at that fish market.
Ditto at #9. Exactly.
I eat meat but try to eat vegetarian at least a few days a week.
I support legislation that would closely regulate slaughterhouses so animals don't die in such terrible ways. I would increase punishment for any animal cruelty cases.
But I can't support this crap. PETA seems to have a mission to marginalize animal rights activists rather then actually get animals better treatment.
Their use of terms like "holocaust" frequently leaves me wanting less.
Coupon Codes Heaven:
You are ignoring that there is such a thing as a continuum of sentience. Killing a bonobo, a dolphin or an elephant is not the same as killing a fish, which is not the same than killing a flatworm.
Comparisons with humans are not adequate.
I am not a vegetarian (but I should be!), but I have not seen any fact or argument to claim that the suffering experienced by a fish is the same than the one experienced by a cow.
@11 / 17
Oh, no, don't slay that potato!
Let us be merciful, please.
Don't boil it or fry it, don't even freeze-dry it.
Don't slice it or flake it.
For God's sake, don't bake it!
Don't shed the poor blood,
Of this poor helpless spud.
That's the worst kind of thing you could do.
Oh, no, don't slay that potato,
What never done nothing to you!
Y'know, if I was tasked with coming up with an extremist group like this, I wouldn't be able to overcome my suspension of disbelief enough to script anything like what these clowns actually advocate.
Seriously, "Ethical Treatment of Animals" extends to how you handle their corpses? Do they think that if there was less showmanship there would be less fish consumed? Who are these people?
Alright, so, we all bow to PETA's wishes, and we stop throwing fish, stop eating fish, stop eating meat, release all animals, stop testing on them, etc.
And how many humans will die from this change? I know that we can't grow enough soy beans to feed all of humanity, and with all of the animals and insects out there eating our crops (we can't put up fences, that would be cruel to the animals, and pesticides KILL insects, which are little animals), we'd be even more of a small population.
PETA have gone from animal rights advocates to human haters. While I do agree that animals should be treated "ethically", there is a difference between that and being treated equally.
a long long long time ago, I worked for a company that produced cat shows when we weren't building high speed, quad-precision floating point math work for the RS-6000. (interesting story)
anyhow, in NYC, PETA was protesting the cat show. "Ohhh, the poor mistreated ANIMALS"
I watched a PETA member step over a homeless man living in a cardboard box, to berate a cat show participant.
save the animals, but heck with helping out your fellow human.
turned me off to anything good PETA will ever do
The fish are dead.
I don't think they care if you toss them around.
Elk, I doubt it will work. PETAphiles once phone-stalked the government of the city of Fishkill, NY, to try to get them to change the name of the town. When their victims patiently explained (the first few times) that '-kill' is not the English word 'kill' but a Dutch word for a particular type of stream, the PETAphiles responded that that doesn't matter, it sounds like the town wants to kill fish so you should change it anyway.*
So I suspect they wouldn't be too happy with the tossing of a rubber fish either.
Question for the thread: who do you reckon is stupider, YECs or PETA?
____
*If you're like me, and gods help you if you are, this makes you want to found a town and name it "Gratuitous Murder of Our Dear and Helpless Animal Friends for the Sadistic Pleasure of Bad Evil People Bwah-Hah-Hah."
Which is more of a joke right now: the Repuglicans or PETA?
Hmmmmm,,,,how would PETA feel about tossing dead Repugs in the air for tourist pics?
@17
Well, you can ridicule what I've written as much as you like. But the fact is that yes, you are right, even plants do feel and it's becoming more and more disturbing in my life to observe the cruel way the world was created. It's a dog-eat-dog world and I do not like it at all. Educated people should at least try to do something against cruelty even if what they do starts with a tiny comment somewhere on the net...
When is someone going to stand up for pizza. I constantly see it being tossed around for my enjoyment. What about bowling pins and chain saws.
They finally got that Mr. T guy to stop tossing little people. Maybe PETA should find out who represented that case.
CSTatman, that's the point. They don't actually love animals. They HATE HUMANS. Animal rights is just an excuse they use to torment their fellow humans.
My vet once went on a rant about how cruel it was to feed a cat or dog a vegetarian diet. They did not evolve to eat vegetables; their intestines are not long enough to process nutrients from them. Forcing your dog to be vegetarian is the worst form of cruelty according to him, and I'm inclined to agree.
and if PETA thinks that if animals need ethical treatment after death, should i be doing my BM's in pet cemeteries and saying a few kind words?
i.just.dont.understand.them.
The tossed fish are sold - you pick the fish out of the cooler/ice pack and the guy comes around the front and throws it to the guy behind the counter where it is weighed and packed.
If they drop it - and I have never seen a monger drop one - they can't sell it. Food safety and whatnot.
"Killing animals so you can toss their bodies around for amusement is just twisted," said Ashley Byrne, senior campaigner for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in Washington, D.C.
I have news for Ashley:
Fish get killed because they're delicious, not to be thrown around. That's just a bonus. And I don't think the fish care too much since they're dead.
PETA is pure show. They would love to protest the AVMA conference itself in Seattle, but that wouldn't look good (people like vets) and bring to light that one of their core beliefs is that there should be no pets period. So instead they go after the one thing that people know about seattle, to get more donations. I guess it must work!
This seems appropriate
http://comedians.comedycentral.com/david-cross/videos/david-cross---dead-body
Come on, people.
I don't like PETA. I think they go overboard. But the responses to this post have been asinine and irrational and completely without empathy.
PETA doesn't see animals and human beings as terrifically different. Given that, of course their want to not fling bodies around makes sense. Most people can get behind the idea of not flinging dead humans around, I'd imagine.
Whether you agree with that or not is one thing, but don't put on this bullshit act of how ridiculous this is or how completely irrational it is. It only requires accepting ONE different idea.
While I think PETA does a lot of stupid shit - like their unbelievably childish Chris P. Carrot for President crap - I don't really think this one falls into that category. I'd be pretty pissed if I was killed for food and I ended up being thrown on a floor and subsequently tossed out, just like I think the argument against using meat in art is equally as strong.
Given that this one isn't even about not killing for food, and about not killing for waste, I'd say this is actually exceptionally RATIONAL for PETA.
So how about some perspective next time?
I think y'all are missing the PETA point. With the absurdities coming out of their collective mouths, they surely must be some sort of surrealist art prank gone awry.....and they have somehow managed to make a living out of it, so why stop the gravy train now?
Has PETA finally jumped the shark? Or has the shark jumped PETA?
One of the things that sets PETA apart from the rest of humanity is that most of us feel empathy for non-humans on a sliding scale based on how much they remind us of ourselves.
Thus apes and other social mammals live near the top of the list of "things that should be treated with human dignity," whereas infectious microbes inhabit the "destroy with extreme prejudice" end of the scale.
I guess a dead fish is more human-like than a lot of things in the world, but it's far enough down the scale that most people would have a hard time working up an emotional attachment to it.
Why doesn't PETA get up in arms about the Monty Python "Fish slapping" sketch.
PETA is insane... they make a lot of money off of good people who should just be donating to the ASPCA but who don't know any better and don't know what PETA *really* believes...
Has PETA finally jumped the shark? Or has the shark jumped PETA?
And which would PETA be more likely to protest?
I'm just not convinced that PETA isn't a strawman funded by conservatives to discredit those they don't agree with.
The problem with PETA is that they take a valid and important issue, animal welfare, and turn it into a freak show, thus marginalizing anyone who's actually serious about the issue.
I suspect that they're secretly paid shills for the powerful stabbing-kittens-in-the-face-with-a-rusty-fork industry.
PETA is becoming embarrassing. They have reduced themselves to a series of lame publicity grabs. Why bother with education or facts when they can just ask the Pet Shop Boys to change their name, or publicly chastise fishmongers for being theatrical? Small wonder only aging hippies and naive college sophomores take them seriously anymore. When I need something fixed I call a craftsman, not a clown.
Has every member of PITA* publicly forsworn acceptance of every medical treatment that involves in vivo testing beforehand? And will they make their health care records publicly available in order to verify that?
If not, they're nothing more than "Do as I say, not as I do!" hypocrites.
* It's intentional...
To #2 above, love the image of a gutted PETA member sailing overhead.
My trouble-making younger brother used to approach PETA members who had huge gorey images of skinned fur animals, and ask if they were having a barbecue ;-).
Now that I think of it, BBQ PETA member, now that's a cookout worth attending.
#12 - Feeding a dog a vegetarian diet IS the very definition of animal cruelty. Dogs and cats are built to primarily eat meat, and even dry kibble can cause problems. Making an animal be a vegetarian can cause diabetes very easily (insulin shots twice a day!), as well as the failure of lots of major internal organs resulting in a slow, painful death. Few things make me as angry as people who impose their food related guilt (as invented by the media around them) on defenseless animals who had no choice in who they live with or what they eat while they live there.
Seriously, if you have a pet you have a commitment to feed them what's best for THEM, regardless of what you think is best for you.
PETA cares more about dead animals than live people.
What? Seriously?
The Onion couldn't write a better article. Hilarious.
As a vegetarian I appreciate that PETA pushes the envelope but in cases like this it ends up making them look foolish. An organization perceived as kill-joys doesn't do us or the animals any good.
A little more discretion would be useful here, PETA.
"Has PETA finally jumped the shark? Or has the shark jumped PETA?"
I think the shark was thrown over PETA's head. PETA did not take a photograph.
@JMendonsa:
I disagree. Even if I accepted that fish are as capable of suffering as we do and are morally equivalent to humans (which I do not, because I have a basic understanding of neuroscience), I would STILL think it was ridiculous to protest tossing them around. Aside from the obvious "aren't there better places to be focusing your resources" argument, do they really think these fish have some cultural taboo against disrespecting the dead? Could any fish even understand anything remotely as abstract as "after you die, you'll be tossed around for amusement," let alone be bothered by the idea?
I have to keep reminding myself that there's nothing wrong with being a hypocrite as long as you are fighting the good fight.
I can not believe how heartless you people are.
Dead fish have been marginalized throughout human history and subjected to unthinkable indignities.
It warms my heart that wealthy people with nothing useful to do take the time to fight on their behalf.
You should be ashamed of yourselves.
@12, 53
From what I understand, it is possible to feed a dog a vegetarian (not vegan) diet just fine. Cats, not so much. (It can probably happen, depending upon the cats ability to supplement their intake via their own means.)
(Not that I've done either. All our animals/friends/whatever get a varied diet.)
@41
I'd be pretty pissed if I was killed for food and I ended up being thrown on a floor and subsequently tossed out
So you'd be cool if you were caught and then sold and eaten?
PETA are complete nutjobs and hurt their own cause by making it laughable.
They'd do more for their own cause by disbanding than they can ever achieve as an organization.
"Killing animals so you can toss their bodies around for amusement is just twisted,"
I have to agree with this statement. Of course, it doesn't apply here because that's not why they kill them.
@jmendonsa:
"I'd be pretty pissed if I was killed for food and I ended up being thrown on a floor and subsequently tossed out,"
No, actually you wouldn't.
What about breeding dogs so that they can't run away?
Honestly, when I die, I hope somebody throws me over somebody else's head. Especially if it's funny.
@16 et al - please RTFA. The fish are tossed from one fishmonger to another after someone has purchased them. No fish are being discarded here.
PETA, you have bigger fish to fry
Listen up brothers and sisters,
come hear my desperate tale.
I speak of our friends of nature,
trapped in the dirt like a jail.
Vegetables live in oppression,
served on our tables each night.
This killing of veggies is madness,
I say we take up the fight.
Salads are only for murderers,
coleslaw's a fascist regime.
Don't think that they don't have feelings,
just cause a radish can't scream.
Chorus:
I've heard the screams of the vegetables (scream, scream, scream)
Watching their skins being peeled (having their insides revealed)
Grated and steamed with no mercy (burning off calories)
How do you think that feels (bet it hurts really bad)
Carrot juice constitutes murder (and that's a real crime)
Greenhouses prisons for slaves (let my vegetables go)
It's time to stop all this gardening (it's dirty as hell)
Let's call a spade a spade (is a spade is a spade is a spade)
I saw a man eating celery,
so I beat him black and blue.
If he ever touches a sprout again,
I'll bite him clean in two.
I'm a political prisoner,
trapped in a windowless cage.
Cause I stopped the slaughter of turnips
by killing five men in a rage
I told the judge when he sentenced me,
This is my finest hour,
I'd kill those farmers again
just to save one more cauliflower
Chorus
How low as people do we dare to stoop,
Making young broccolis bleed in the soup?
Untie your beans, uncage your tomatoes
Let potted plants free, don't mash that potato!
I've heard the screams of the vegetables (scream, scream, scream)
Watching their skins being peeled (fates in the stirfry are sealed)
Grated and steamed with no mercy (you fat gormet slob)
How do you think that feels? (leave them out in the field)
Carrot juice constitutes murder (V8's genocide)
Greenhouses prisons for slaves (yes, your composts are graves)
It's time to stop all this gardening (take up macrame)
Let's call a spade a spade (is a spade, is a spade, is a spade, is a spade.....
I'll leave a rusty cellphone on your cemetery plaque stone.
It's important to remember that Peta is about publicity, not advocacy. They will make any claim regarding animals if they believe it will be widely repeated in the news or on the web.
Perhaps something like,
"Publicity, Extremism, Theatrics, and animals"
I think people are a bit confused about the fish throwing guys at the pike street market.
Fish are thrown when they are ordered. The packing area of their stand is pretty surrounded by their ice trays that are holding the fish. When a fish is ordered there is much chanting and then the fish is thrown back to the guy in the packing area, who catches it in paper and wraps it up.
I imagine, on occasion, a catch is missed and that fish is thrown out. However I think the amount of fish wasted this way is greatly outnumbered by their daily spoilage.
62 comments and only one about Lew Zealand? He deserves more respect than that.
It's things like this that make me wonder if maybe PETA is a false-flag operation funded by the meat industry in order to make more sensible protest groups (people who oppose factory farming, for example) look bad by association.
Well, I *had* comments to make, but they've all been said......
@#41:
"While I think PETA does a lot of stupid shit - like their unbelievably childish Chris P. Carrot for President crap - I don't really think this one falls into that category. I'd be pretty pissed if I was killed for food and I ended up being thrown on a floor and subsequently tossed out, just like I think the argument against using meat in art is equally as strong.
Given that this one isn't even about not killing for food, and about not killing for waste, I'd say this is actually exceptionally RATIONAL for PETA.
So how about some perspective next time?"
Have you ever been to the Pike Place Fish Market? I've NEVER seen them drop any fish. They toss them from person to person to get them wrapped up for people to purchase and eat...the fact that it's entertaining is just a bonus. Seiously, it's not wasteful. I don't see how this legitimately hurts ANYTHING anymore than buying fish in a supermarket. At least at Pike Place, I know my fish is FRESH and not coming from some factory, or worse yet a fish farm where the fish are raised in suboptimal conditions.
Sorry, but this IS about killing FOR FOOD. If it was only about entertainment, it would be on STAGE not at an actual FISH MARKET.
Dear lord. Learn to pick your battles, PETA.
yoo guise missed the point entirely, peta was formed by a bunch of bored 4channers who wanted to pull the ultimate real life troll on people fur teh lulz. Much laughter and comedy ensude this little stunt of the /b board except that thw joke had become very real and too a life of its own and walked down the road of unintended consequences. According to Internet lore 4chan has denied all responsibility for the creation of PETA and currently points the finger of blame at ebaumsworld for this internet prank gone horribly awry...
True story brah
Maybe people would be willing to give up eating animals if instead, we got to eat PETA members...
#18 - Seriously. I suppose raising tomato seedlings in the basement and feeding them nothing but artificially generated photons from March to May is also cruel. I buy mine at a "seedling mill," then I plant them in the barely warm ground and hope lamely that we won't have one last frosty morning to kill them horribly. Finally, when they're finished producing those wonderful orbs of deliciousness, they're abandoned to the ravages of winter, and finally tilled under as soon as the ground thaws. Such is the hard life of a tomato plant in my back yard. Won't anybody think of the tomato plants?
@fnordx,27: "I know that we can't grow enough soy beans to feed all of humanity"
Just for the sake of setting the record straight, you're completely wrong on this one. We grow many times more corn and soy than we could ever eat, and we then feed it to animals which we then eat. That's an incredibly inefficient food production process.
I don't remember the exact statistics, but we use something like 10 pounds of grain to get 1 pound of meat. I'm sure that's an average across different animals.
The upshot, though, is that switching our collective diet towards vegetarianism would actually result in an overwhelming surplus of available food.
I have a feeling already that I am preaching to the choir...and wasting my words ,but this takes the cake (at least for the week) as being the dumbest thing I've heard. PETA has got to be the most self-UNaware organization on the planet. I am all for animals - I am deadly set against animal cruelty - but this garners zero sympathy from me. They are literally pissing in the wind - just pathetic! Their director must be super-young and naive.
PETA is simply an example of an organization that exists to change how people live their lives, and picks a convenient heart-string-tugging issue as their front. Sure, they probably care about animals, but more than that they really care about telling you what you should and shouldn't do.
Additional example: Greenpeace.
As a vegan and animal rights activists, I want to point out that most vegans/ AR activists loathe PeTA, for things like this and more.
For example,
* PeTA is against no-kill shelters (they think it's better for animals to die). Activist Nathan Winograd is a great no-kill advocate, but PeTA keeps trying to defame him. They've sued several great no-kill shelters.
* PeTA thinks feral cat colonies should be euthanized, and is opposed to trap, neuter, and return. Hypocritically, there is a feral colony outside their HQ, and they feed the cats to the point where they've overweight.
* Friends of mine who worked at PeTA during Sept. 2001 said that on 9/11 the staff was joyous- because they claimed it was that many less meat eaters (nevermind that there are a lot of vegetarians and vegans in New York).
* Infamously, PeTA has euthanasia chambers in its HQ and kills many adoptable animals; the resources wasted on this could go to preventing pet overpopulation by spaying more cats and dogs.
* PeTA publishes directories of products not tested on animals and encourages people to use them, but their office uses cleaning, etc products tested on animals
....and it goes on and on.
@#65
Yay Arrogant Worms!
Every time I hear a story about PETA, I hear that song in my head.
The upshot, though, is that switching our collective diet towards vegetarianism would actually
With soybeans? It would also result in an overwhelming surplus of available flatulence.
Makes me want to play catch with dead kittens, actually.
@#83 - I'd also like to add that the Senior VP of PeTA relies on animal-based insulin to survive, does she not? All the while screaming at everyone else that we need to use products not tested on or made of animals:
PETA Senior Vice President MaryBeth Sweetland on her use of insulin, which was tested on animals:
"I'm an insulin-dependent diabetic. Twice a day I take synthetically manufactured insulin that still contains some animal products -- and I have no qualms about it ... I'm not going to take the chance of killing myself by not taking insulin. I don't see myself as a hypocrite. I need my life to fight for the rights of animals."
--Glamour, January 1990
http://www.consumerfreedom.com/news_detail.cfm/headline/2628
So, because she has to fight for their rights, she gets to inject herself with animal ingredients. What about other people who also need insulin to survive? They're not important because they're not Senior VPs of PeTA?
Regardless of the pros and cons of PETA objecting to this, I have donated my hard earned cash to them for years for the purpose of the ETHICAL treatment of animals. I gave this money on the basis that there are many cases where living (note that word) creatures are inhumanely treated.
Why are they expending (wasting) their efforts on this? This is FOOD. Caught and killed for the purpose of EATING. In the meantime, companies like Smithfield are treating LIVING animals badly. There are 'pets' bred for specific features... and many more.
MANY more important and relevant matters than the tossing of dead fish. Get a life PETA. Get your money from someone else now.
More than 85 comments and not a single reference to the kitten juggling bit in The Jerk? People, I'm disappointed in you. All of you.
As a level seven vegan I find this behavior abhorrent.
@ Coupon Codes Heaven:
Soooo... if "even plants feel" and should be treated with more respect, are you eaqually against tossing the salad?
*snare drum roll*
The greater issue here is the wanton abuse of the innocent air. How would you feel if you were peacefully supporting life for all the inhabitants of Earth, and someone just threw a 20-pound sea kitten right through you?
Yeah, that's what I thought.
-- People for the Ethical Treatment of Air
PETA... definitely jumping the shark.
Pick your battles, PETA. How about doing something to support sustainable fishing and lowering bycatch, instead of trying to ban something that hurts literally nobody, including even the already-dead fish being tossed around?
When did Boingboing turn into Fark?
It is really sad that people get so infuriated by PETA that they trivialize the underlying issues. Apparently all it takes to illegitimize a movement is a single vocal organization.
Let's hope the Moral Majority doesn't realize this and start a gay rights org that does insane things like have gay dog rights protests, or lobby that a man and a pig should be married, or try to get Mr. Slave on the presidential ticket. If the general public is as myopic as some of the comments here suggest, something like that could quite easily wipe out social progression.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnivore#Obligate_carnivores
I wonder how much wildlife is prevented/destroyed by all those factories making artificial taurine for vegans who mould their pets into their artificial (that's the only word) world view...
Counter-argument at the ready: vegetarian Inuit, anyone?
"the mind state it requires and promotes to toss corpses about for the purpose of entertainment."
Or to dig up the graveyards of other cultures - and put the bones and skulls on display in museums - in the name of science (but mostly for 'treasure')?
Who first reported 'the thin veneer of civilization'?
PETA is being foolish - it's not like throwing them is wasting them.
If PETA is down to "stop throwing fish" on their list of complaints they should just stop.
If PETA wanted to be taken seriously, they wouldn't have chosen a name that sounds like a delicious meat-filled sandwich wrap.
But seriously, their logic is completely flawed. As #1 points out, the fish aren't killed for entertainment, they're killed to be eaten. Tossing them is for show.
I'm sure the fish would rather be tossed than cooked and eaten any day. I know I would... these guys are always good for a laugh :D There are plenty of great animal charities these guys just aren't one of em
This is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. It's not like the Pike guys taunt the fish or something. They just toss it over the counter and then throw a stuffed animal at a silly tourist. THIS is what PETA chooses to devote their time to stopping? The organization is a joke, and obviously not doing any good for animals when they are focused on these publicity stunts.
I always avoid that stand at the market, just because the crowds are so large around it. But seriously, this is PETA having an issue with people killing to eat. In the 14 years that I've lived here, I've never once seen them drop a fish.
The closest thing that comes to cruelty at that stand is when they use the monkfish on puppet srings to scare the crap out of little kids and old ladies. That is, admittedly, pretty mean.
@ #1 nailed it.
Why is there no video of fish-tossing set to Yakety Sax? This is a half-hearted effort at scorn and derision.
Peta has no credibility at all. thier "shelters" in virginia had a 95% death rate in virginia
from: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/petas-pet-slaughterhouse/
In Virginia, PETA takes the notion of killing with kindness literally: only seven animals found a home out of the 2,216 it cared for in 2008. Seven animals managed a reprieve; the rest were loved to death. From the blog PETA Kills Animals:
PETA’s “Animal Record” report for 2008, filed with the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, shows that the animal rights group killed 95 percent of the dogs and cats in its care last year. During all of 2008, PETA found adoptive homes for just seven pets.
Just seven animals — out of the 2,216 it took in. PETA just broke its own record.
Why would an animal rights group secretly kill animals at its headquarters? PETA’s continued silence on the matter makes it hard to say for sure. But from a cost-saving standpoint, PETA’s hypocrisy isn’t difficult to understand: Killing adoptable cats and dogs — and storing the bodies in a walk-in freezer until they can be cremated — requires far less money and effort than caring for the pets until they are adopted.
PETA has a $32 million annual budget. But instead of investing in the lives of the thousands of flesh and blood creatures in its care, the group spends millions on media campaigns telling Americans that eating meat, drinking milk, fishing, hunting, wearing leather shoes, and benefiting from medical research performed on lab rats are all “unethical.”
The bottom line: PETA’s leaders care more about cutting into their advertising budget than finding homes for the nearly six pets they kill on average, every single day.
not a word from PETA? Hello? Anyone out there?
The silence is insulting.
@94
PETA doesn't need us to trivialize the underlying issues. They do it perfectly well themselves.
@95 MAZERRACKHAM,
"It is really sad that people get so infuriated by PETA that they trivialize the underlying issues."
Um, I don't think we are the ones who are being trivial.
I'd just like to take this opportunity to announce to any animals (and cannibals) out there, that if they kill me to eat me, they are fully allowed to throw my corpse around first. I'm far more offended by the killing to eat me bit than I am about the "disrespect" of how my body is handled afterwards.
Bears in the woods, lions escaped from the zoo, this goes out to you.
PETA to world: "Eat your veggies, don't play with your food, and, by the way, stay off my lawn KID".
this is stupid fight, even for PETA
Equal rights to the living ...a n d the dead.
Michelle Pierre
#79// Or, PETA (People-hating, Extreme, Theatric Assholes)
It was originally People-hating, Egotistical, Terrorist-like Assholes....
I bet PETA are afraid that in the future when fish take over, they would throw us around before consuming us... PETA is picking a stupid fight that brings no merit to it's organization. PETA should definitely give an award to Martin Yan as he massages dead chicken before cooking them in scalding hot oil... but at the same time, he also pretend the chickens are alive by treating them as puppets.
I've met some PETA supporters who had a level head on their shoulders before.
Unfortunately by and large the top levels of the organization are run by people who, it seems, really don't even have a clue what they formed the organization for in the first place, anymore.
They used to have more focus than this. Their methods were poor and sometimes criminal, but they seemed to have focus. Now, it seems, all they're doing is getting flustered and thrashing around choosing random targets to focus their ire upon.
I think it ceased to be about the animals years ago and someone is just going through the motions now, continuing the tradition of stupid publicity stunts just so they look like they're doing their job.
Ironically, I think PETA is really starting to act exactly like a frightened, dying animal.
Dogs on a vegetarian diet? I'm going to start feeding my houseplants steak to compensate.
People. for The Eating. of Tasty. Animulz. PETA or People Eating Tasty Animals, and yup I heartily recomend the parody website, needs to update its links though...
"Ironically, I think PETA is really starting to act exactly like a frightened, dying animal."
Good. Kill it quickly. They are doing incalculable harm to animals by co-opting a noble cause for their insane agenda. Save the animals! Kill PETA!
Someone sat down and created an argument about dead fish? Seriously?
SpokenWurd,
Your URL can go on your profile page, thanks.
Damn, I feel an urge to eat seafood now.
I think we should ban the practice of lobbing pumpkins too, It's hard enough that we grow them, harvest, disgorge them, then carve faces into their skin, put a candle in them as a macabre insult to their lives...and then shoot them out of homemade cannons and catapults...the disgrace!
@#95 - Isn't that what NAMBLA is?
I think the Pike wharf fishmongers have a new chant now:
DISS THA FISH! DISS THA FISH! DISS THA FISH!
In my run in's with PETA over the years I noticed that PETA membership was a great way to sort the hot hippie loons from the hot hippie chicks.
I'm not sure if this has been posted yet, but as a person from the state I must declare the obvious. The fish mongers only use one or two fish all day. Throwing each fish they sell would ruin the meat. So, really, PETA is going to complain about them doing this, when they already do it in a conservative way? Please.
Never saw a cat play with his catch? How twisted they are!
"Throwing each fish they sell would ruin the meat."
I'm not that knowledgeable about fish so I gotta ask, how does throwing fish ruin the meat?
Okay, now they're just trying to piss people off...
WTF?! it's dead; if people want to parade around w/ them on their heads let them do it.
the gutting of any animal isn't "ethical" anyhow; just let us eat our meat!
I live in Seattle and I do not buy from these fishmongers. Ever seen the price of wild salmon these days? The last thing I want is that expensive fish slammed around by these bozos.
Most of you knee-jerk PETA haters probably eat that farm-raised crap anyways so how would you know about treating the fish or any other food with a bit of respect? I personally don't like PETA as they are as whiney-assed as Greenpeace but that's no reason to open your mouths to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that you're idiots with your childish insults.
I swear to god, sometimes the irrational empathy some of you exhibit is sickening.
And comparing it to flinging dead cats, that's just seeking an emotional response that bypasses any rational behavior.
They're dead. They feel nothing, their journey is complete. Same goes with human meat. People pay too much ritual to what's essentially rotting flesh, treating with respect as it could be disturbed.
However, it is true that mishandling human remains can have an effect on family and friends. It's just that, humoring the grieving acquaintances.
any commercial wild caught salmon undergoes a roller-coaster ride far greater than a hand to hand toss. I myself think fish should be handled like in Japan: an expensive, precious and rare thing that warrants respect. Spare us the sanctimonious 'tude there, Jorge.
Idea for next PETA campaign:
throw in the junk bones of the steaks you just eat is disrespectful for the animals...
hey #130
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1Q7nSNEpy8
Dennis Leary: My fluffy little dog.. He's so cute- There's the problem. We only want to save the cute animals, don't we? Yeah. Why don't we just have animal auditions. Line 'em up one by one and interview them individually.
Dennis: What are you?
Otter: I'm an otter.
Dennis: And what do you do?
Otter: I swim around on my back and do cute little human things with my hands.
Dennis: You're free to go. And what are you?
Cow: I'm a cow.
Denis: Get in the fucking truck, ok pal!
Cow: But I'm an animal.
Dennis: You're a baseball glove! Get on that truck!
Cow: I'm an animal, I have rights!
Dennis: (pointing at leather jacket) Yeah, here's yer fucking cousin, get on the fucking truck, pal!
PETA is run by an Abbatoirs Group or something.
Much like VICE Magazine is a GOP publication.
Isn't it PETA who decided that fish should be known as "kittens of the sea" in an attempt to give fish a "positive image"?
Ah, thank you, Wikipedia, you're so kind to me:
http://www.peta.org/sea_kittens/about.asp
mazzercham - It is really sad that people get so infuriated by PETA that they trivialize the underlying issues.
What is sad is PETA trivializing the word "Ethical".
Here's the link to the Arrogant Worms youTube Music Video of Carrot Juice is Murder:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmK0bZl4ILM&feature=related
I knew a fish once......they love the attention:)
That is so frigging hilarious!
According to PETA's issue with the fish tossing at Pike Place, I wonder if they would expect all the captains on Deadliest Catch to instruct their crew to respectfully hand pick all the crabs they catch and walk down into the galley to gently place them down one by one, if they watched the show???????????
You know, PETA people all need involuntarily committed to a nuthouse!
Sigh :-[