If You Wouldn't Do This to a Dog, Why Do It to a Fish?

Anglers will have more than fishing on their minds when they see PETA's new billboard on the road to their favorite fishing hole.

No one would consider doing to a dog what some so casually do to fish—trick them into impaling themselves in the mouth and pull them into an environment where they can't breathe. But the fact is—fish feel pain just as all animals do.

When it comes to feelings, a child is a dog is a fish.

Sylvia Earle, one of the leading marine biologists and ocean explorers of our time, has spent thousands of hours diving and knows a thing or two about the denizens of the deep. “I never eat anyone I know personally,” says Earle. “I wouldn’t deliberately eat a grouper any more than I’d eat a cocker spaniel. They’re so good-natured, so curious. You know, fish really are sensitive, they have personalities, they hurt when they’re wounded.”

Bass and basset hounds, cods and collies, all animals treasure their lives and feel pain.

"I often read of people who say that when they retire, they will go fishing. ... It never occurs to them for a moment that innocent beings will suffer and die from this innocent little sport." —Isaac Bashevis Singer

Why do we throw a frisbee to some animals and a barbed hook to others?

Even when thrown back, fish are forced to endure a violent and frightening ordeal. Naturalist David Quammen has said: "I've had more and more trouble with catch-and-release fishing as time goes on. I've concluded that it's speciesist to tell ourselves it's a game to the fish. It's deadly mortal serious to them. These animals were hysterically fighting for survival ..."

Fishing is just as cruel as tossing Rover a biscuit on a hook and then reeling in the old boy. The only difference is that Rover is cute and cuddly. But don't let the scales and gills fool you: Those fish have feelings, too.

"Imagine using worms and flies to catch ... eagles and ospreys and hauling them around on 50 feet of line while they tried to get away. Then when you landed them, you'd release them. No one would tolerate that sort of thing with birds. But we will for fish because they're underwater and out of sight."

—Jack Turner, former angler

Learn more about fish.

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