This is not strictly a legal issue, but PETA recently sought
to have a memorial placed on a public roadway in Orange County for fish. On
October 11, a truck carrying several thousand pounds of live fish for sale at a
local market and consumption crashed. Although many of the fish were preserved
and taken onto the market, many of the fish died on the site. A local member of
PETA happened to pass by and see the fish scattered around the highway. In
response, PETA sent a written request to the city of Irvine asking for the
placement of the sign at the crash site “In memory of hundreds of fish who
suffered and died at the spot”. The purpose of the proposed memorial sign,
according to PETA, was to remind people that fish feel pain to. PETA felt that this should be considered
analogous to a roadside memorial for human fatalities since the fish died in an
auto accident.
This instance serves as a reminder that while PETA focuses
its publicity efforts on animals which can be anthropomorphized, its real goals
are directed toward a different agenda. PETA’s
efforts to create empathy for warm and fuzzy creatures is generally simply a
publicity front for its real efforts. In opposing PITA and similar groups it
can be useful to highlight instances such as this. While the general public may
sympathetic to some of PETA’s publicity efforts, these sorts of actions can be
used to remind the public of PETA’s broader agenda.
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