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NEW YORK, U.S.A., November 16 2004: Animal-rights activists have launched a novel campaign arguing that fish are intelligent, sensitive animals no more deserving of being eaten than a pet dog or cat. Called the Fish Empathy Project the campaign reflects a strategy shift by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) as it challenges a diet component widely viewed as nutritious and uncontroversial, says this article. “No one would ever put a hook through a dog’s or cat’s mouth,” said Bruce Friedrich, PETA’s director of vegan outreach. “Once people start to understand that fish, although they come in different packaging, are just as intelligent, they’ll stop eating them.”



PETA has campaigned for years against sport fishing and has joined other critics in decrying the high levels of mercury or other toxins in many fish and the pollution discharged by many fish farms. The Empathy Project is a departure in two respects–attempting to depict the standard practices of commercial fishing as cruel and seeking to convince consumers that there are ethical reasons for not eating fish. The project was inspired by several recent scientific studies detailing facets of fish intelligence. Oxford University researcher Theresa Burt de Perera, for example, reported that the blind Mexican cave fish is able to interpret water pressure changes to construct a detailed mental map of its surroundings.”Most people dismiss fish as dim-witted pea-brains. … Yet this is a great fallacy,” wrote University of Edinburgh biologist Culum Brown in the June edition of New Scientist. “In many areas, such as memory, their cognitive powers match or exceed those of ‘higher’ vertebrates, including non-human primates.”



To press their argument, PETA activists plan demonstrations starting next month at selected seafood restaurants nationwide. PETA also will urge changes in commercial fishing practices. Friedrich questioned why there is popular support for sparing marine mammals–dolphins and porpoises–yet minimal concern for species like tuna, “whose suffering would warrant felony animal cruelty charges if they were mammals.” Friedrich acknowledges the difficulty of changing long-held customs, but thinks his project is worthwhile. “We’d rather go too far than not far enough,” he said.

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