Save the Sea Kittens!
You know, I couldn’t have made this up if I tried.
I get a relentless amount of e-mail from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). While I agree with a lot of the things their organization talks about, sometimes they do something that just leaves a person asking “What’s that about?” and leaves you shaking your head. Their latest campaign is “Save the Sea Kittens”. Of course, you have to take a look at what they are talking about, and the answer is that this is a new anti-fishing campaign.
On the new section of their website, PETA has places a campaign that asks people to contact the US Fish and Wildlife Service and tell them to stop the torture and killing of sea kittens. Let me just share the excerpt from their site:
Given the drastic situation for this country’s sea kittens—who are often the victims of many major threats to their welfare and ways of life—it’s high time that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) stop allowing our little sea kitten friends to be tortured and killed. Who’d want to hurt a sea kitten anyway?!
Sea kittens are just as intelligent (not to mention adorable) as dogs and cats, and they feel pain just as all animals do.
Please take just a few moments to send an e-mail to H. Dale Hall, the director of the FWS, asking him to stop promoting the hunting of sea kittens (otherwise known as “fishing”). The promotion of sea kitten hunting is a glaring contradiction of FWS’ mission to “conserve, protect and enhance fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats.”
Now I will admit that I once made a small contribution to this organization. It does not bother me in the least that someone will stand up and prevent animals – whether they be pets, work animals, or destined to be food — from being mistreated or having to suffer any form of pain. I would like everyone to treat all animals humanely. But I really think that promoting a ban on fishing is a complete waste of time and effort.
PETA is well known for it’s sensational campaigns to discourage fur farming, promote the welfare of chickens and circus animals, and other worthwhile endeavors. While their methods are out of the mainstream, there is little doubt that they do get attention, which is the point of promotion. But this fishing campaign is just simply odd on a couple of levels.
The first is that we all know what a fish is, and a fish is a fish. Relabeling them “sea kittens” is not going to change anyone’s picture of how we see a fish. Secondly, at best, this campaign is a waste of resources. At the worst, this really leaves me wondering what they are talking about, and calls into question everything else that they do. I have yet to meet anyone who has seen this campaign who didn’t ask whether it was some kind of joke.
So laugh along with me. Besides, I think the guy who will get the biggest laugh will be the the director of the FWS, who will inevitably end up with stacks of letters asking him to “Save the Sea Kittens!” Even if he gets another stack of letters asking him to ban fishing, either premise is pretty funny.
To their credit, PETA has done some good over the years. I hope their latest campaign doesn’t limit their effectiveness down the road.
January 16th, 2009 at 7:10 am
Sea Kittens? I laughed myself out of my chair!.
I also would like to think that we could all treat animals humanely. We simply can not convince everyone to become Vegetarians (something to do with free will?). There will always be chickens, beef, pork, and ‘sea kittens’ that are marketed to the general public.
I would just hope that the protocol for aquiring these items would be done with as much dignity as possible. I personally like to picture chickens and turkeys in a field, calves never being found chained in a dark barn, and certainly when these animals are led down that “one-way path towards the local supermarket” ,they would not be thrown and piled in the back of a truck as if they were refuse. I prefer farming of the past generation not this one. I guess I’m an old fashioned girl.
~Kal