Catch and release-try it

Did you know eating fish was murder?

Taking on PETA over new ad campaign
Activist group spokesman defends 'Your Daddy Kills Animals' comic

A good advertisement is designed to grab people's attention, but PETA's recent campaign to stop fishing has some fishermen, very much including MSNBC's Tucker Carlson, pretty annoyed.

PETA is distributing leaflets that show an angry cartoon father figure ripping apart a fish. Plastered over the picture in big letters, it says, "Your Daddy Kills Animals."

On Tuesday, Carlson welcomed Bruce Friedrich, PETA's director of farmed animal campaigns to as he said, "defend the indefensible."

TUCKER CARLSON: I'm offended by this. I can't believe actually that you put this out. This is an attack on fathers aimed at children. How could you do this?

BRUCE FRIEDRICH: Well, Tucker, it's not an attack on cruelty to animals, and our point is very, very serious. If you fish, I can see how you'd be offended by it, because fishing supports cruelty to animals. If you wouldn't take a hook and put it through a dog's mouth and drag that animal behind the car, you shouldn't do that to fish.

CARLSON: Well, there are so many false statements in your last sentence, let me just pick them apart one by one.

First, I want to talk about this comic book ... "Your Daddy Kills Animals." In here you have lines like this, "Since your daddy is teaching you the wrong lessons about right and wrong, you should teach him fishing is killing. Until your daddy learns it's not fun to kill, keep your doggies and kitties away from him. He's so hooked on killing defenseless animals, they could be next."

I assume you have no children, right? You couldn't. Nobody with children would put this out, because that's the kind of thing that gives kids nightmares. I mean, seriously, your daddy's going to kill your dog? Come on.

FRIEDRICH: Tucker, we focus grouped the ad. Kids get it. If you watch MTV, you go to the web sites that kids like, even watch Saturday morning cartoons, this is the sort of hyperbole that kids really like. But it makes a serious point, scientifically, biologically. Fish feel pain in the same way that dogs and cats feel pain. Cruelty to fish is no more morally justifiable than is cruelty to dogs or cats.

CARLSON: What about cruelty to children and their fathers? I'm serious. I'm totally serious. Why go -- why go after kids? Why go after kids? Why? You have an adult point to make. Why not change adult minds?

This would be sad if it wasn't hillarious. PETA seems to be unaware of catch and release fishing, which is mandated in many, many fishing areas in the US and Canada. The lunacy of saying fishing equals killing takes PETA into the realm of Intelligent Design and other fictions.

The fact is that catch and release has been popular for well over a decade and is widely practiced by fishermen, including myself. In Central Park, you can actually fish, but only if you use catch and release. You can argue eating meat, or farming or diets, but to claim fishing is the same as murder is not just a nutty argument, but factually incorrect.

As far as the content of the comic, if this is given out in schools, parents need to complain.

What is catch and release fishing?
It is more of a sportsmen's way of fishing. Instead of keeping one's catch, a fisherman will release it back to the river.


Why should fisherman catch and release?

There are several reasons for using this method. First, with our increasing population, it gives fisherman an opportunity to catch more another day. It also helps to preserve fish populations that are challenged by numerous outside factors. When females are released they are given another chance to spawn and lay their eggs. This is vital to maintaining fish populations because the cycle of life is not interrupted. It preserves wild species of fish.

Oh yeah, this might be of interest to people. Seems Penn and Teller did a story on PETA for their Showtime show Bullshit.

posted by Steve @ 1:10:00 PM