kenimpzoom
Rear Admiral
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2002
- Messages
- 4,807
I hate PETA, what a bunch of morons. I dont enjoy hurting the fish and animals I eat, but thats life. Humans are at the top of the food chain.<br /><br />Ken<br /><br /> http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/2740247 <br /><br />Firm reels billboard in after controversy<br />PETA ad with a fishhooked dog shocked drivers, company <br />By KEVIN MORAN<br />Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle<br /><br />GALVESTON - An anti-fishing sign on Interstate 45 that shows a dog with a fishhook through its bloody lip will be taken down because of numerous complaints, a nationwide sign company decided Monday. <br /><br /><br />Along with the picture, the billboard, paid for by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, bears the question:<br /><br />"If you wouldn't do this to a dog, why do it to a fish?"<br /><br />The billboard went up Aug. 10. It is the first in a national campaign to emphasize the animal advocacy group's contention that fishers inflict torturous injuries and deaths on their catches, PETA spokesman William Rivas-Rivas said Monday.<br /><br />Pat Murray, executive director of the 50,000-member recreational fishing group Coastal Conservation Association Texas, called the billboard "extremist" and said he's glad it will be removed.<br /><br />"It's a gross mischaracterization of the sport and the pastime," said Murray, adding that he saw the sign, near the intersection of I-45 and Texas 146, on Sunday. "We're not dog fishing."<br /><br />The billboard's owner, advertising giant Viacom Outdoor, informed PETA's Norfolk, Va., headquarters Monday that Viacom would exercise its contractual right to remove the sign because of complaints.<br /><br />Viacom spokesman Jeremy Murphy said he was unable to provide the exact number of complaints the company received before deciding to remove the sign.<br /><br />But in an e-mail announcing the decision to PETA, Viacom employee Cecilia Yu said the company received "numerous complaints from the community."<br /><br />Rivas-Rivas said PETA will not fight the billboard's removal but plans to place the same advertisement in the New Orleans and Columbus, Ohio, areas, among others.<br /><br />He said PETA has received no complaints about the billboard.<br /><br />PETA paid $2,000 to rent the Texas billboard for a month and $400 to produce the sign, Rivas-Rivas said.<br /><br />Viacom will refund most of the rent, he said.<br /><br />The billboard ads include the address for a PETA-run Internet site, www.fishinghurts.com. The ads are designed to spur interest in PETA's advocacy campaigns, Rivas-Rivas said.<br /><br />PETA maintains that scientific studies show that fish feel pain just like other animals, Rivas-Rivas said.<br /><br />"Just because fish don't scream out in pain doesn't mean we can do whatever we want with them," he said. "Fish aren't swimming vegetables."<br /><br />PETA supports vegetarian diets and maintains that aside from the pain issue chemically contaminated fish are dangerous to eat.<br /><br />Murray said he's not sure whether fish experience great pain.<br /><br />"I'm sure it's possible, but I don't know definitively," Murray said. "There is a lot of science in a lot of different directions on that subject."<br /><br />Murray said fishing is a traditional American family activity that PETA will not be able to eradicate.<br /><br />He said groups such as his lobby for regulations to preserve fish species.<br /><br />Viacom's Murphy said the company tries to ensure billboard content is "responsible, tasteful and appropriate for public display."<br /><br />"With this in mind, we decided to take this sign down this week," Murphy said.
<br /><br />Fish don't whimper like that 
