Staff Blog
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An open letter to PETA: Sea Kittens?!
Dear PETA,
I have seen your new "Sea Kittens" campaign to stop the hunting/fishing/torturing/eating of fish, and frankly, WTF.
I can understand the paint-on-fur thing. I get why Mickey Rourke, who has no human friends to speak of, would be your spokesman. Even when you had Khloe "I Am Somehow Famous" Kardashian, former fur-lover, posing naked in your ads, I saw your point. She's kind of hot in a Tarzan-meet-Jane sort of way. Whatever.
BUT SEA KITTENS?
Cutesifying fish in order to make them more lovable — and save-able — is not going to work. You ask:
Would people think twice about ordering fish sticks if they were called sea kitten sticks? Would sea kitten soufflé be a hot seller at the local seafood restaurant? Does fillet o' sea kitten sound even remotely appetizing? Learn more about the new campaign to save fish by changing their name.
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| delicious. |
To which I reply: No, yes (hello, foie gras), yes and shut it!
If you think your tricky "kittens are cute" reverse psychology will work on anyone legitimately trying to save the life of a fish, you are dead wrong. You even have a normal, non-cartoon-sounding Web site, fishinghurts.com, in which you refer to "the precious lives of sea kittens" and a "sea kitten empathy quilt.
PETA, please stop trying to make fish furry. Nothing that smells like that should ever be petted.
Enclosed is a picture of the Sea Kitten I created on your ridiculous Disneyesque Web site. I have named him Fumanchuna, and he is pretty fucking adorable if I do say so myself.
HOWEVER. I'll be damned if it's going to stop me from eating fish. Omega-3 fatty acids are good for you! Sorry.
Love and kisses,
Chucks
Dear “Chucks”(?),
I think PETA is just WAY ahead of its time.
Their foundation is the idea that our attitude of not taking seriously the suffering of other animals reflects a form of prejudice, called “speciesism” by philosophers. The most famous essay on this topic is by Princeton University’s Professor of Bioethics, Peter Singer:
http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/philosophy/animals/singer-text.html
The point of this campaign, I think, is to draw attention to the fact that fish have nervous systems similar to mammals like us, and they are also likely to be equally capable of psychological suffering. When millions of fish are caught in commercial nets and dragged to the surface, the pressure change often causes their eyes to pop out, and their swim bladders to puncture. Those that survive usually slowly suffocate or have their bodies ripped open with knives while they’re still conscious. The less we support this economically, the fewer fish will suffer in such ways. We can make a difference.
Please take a look at MEAT.ORG
Also, PETA’s intentionally-silly ad campaigns have successfully gotten the public attention necessary to pressure the largest companies in the world to significantly change their treatment of animals.
And, uh, Mickey Rourke isn’t PETA’s spokesperson. They have a lot of random celebrities, from Alicia Silverstone to Simon Cowell to Paul McCartney to whomever else. I think they have a celebrity-supporter website somewhere.
Just wanted to say that Omega-3, EPA & DHA doesn’t come from fish, it comes from algae, the food they eat. And so you can skip the middleman and avoid mercury by taking a algae omega 3 supplement instead of fish oil. There’s also flax and walnuts. These are also sustainable and fish harvesting for the world population is not.
Wow, nice shot at Mickey Rourke? Douchebag. It’s not his fault nobody reads your blog.
Eating Meat (and Sea Kittens) is Murder!!
Tasty, Tasty murder.
The only thing that brings them out of the woodwork faster is a post about Ron Paul.
“The only thing that brings them out of the woodwork faster is a post about Ron Paul.”
what?
yeah, so I’m with PETA - this sea kitten problem is getting out of control