Archives

Over the years, restaurant servers have suggested fish when I told them I’m vegetarian, and many vegetarians have told me they eat fish. Are these people genuinely confused? Do they not see the fish as animals because they look so much different from cows, chickens and pigs? Or do they want the “vegetarian” label without having to give up fish? Whatever their reasons, can we all agree that fish aren’t vegetables?

Unlike vegetables, fish are sentient — able to feel things. When caught on a sharp hook that pierces their faces, they experience pain. When dragged out of their home in nets or by hooks, they suffocate — just as we would if someone held our heads underwater. Why would we inflict that kind of pain on someone? For sport? For a plate of food? Is it really worth it?

While hunting evokes a negative response among many people, fishing does not. In fact, many view it as a wholesome family activity. But it is far from wholesome. Fishing is a blood sport; it is hunting in the water. So, if you oppose hunting, then shouldn’t you oppose fishing and consuming fish? If you’re not convinced that fishing is inhumane, please read more.

After using a horse to crash into a protester (saboteur) at an illegal fox hunt in the U.K., hunters blocked the road with their vehicles to prevent the ambulance from attending to the victim, who broke five ribs. The attack was caught on camera, and the footage will be turned over to the authorities.

People who hunt and kill for sport are, by definition, violent. It should therefore come as no surprise that some hunters also attack people who get in their way. In this video, hunters punch protesters who are  blocking an illegal dig-out of a fox who is hiding in a hole.

Hunting with hounds was outlawed in the U.K. in 2005, but it continues due to lack of enforcement. As a result, the 51 year old Hunt Saboteurs Association continues to operate, “protecting our wildlife from the ‘sportsmen’ who get their kicks from killing.”

The police are so accustomed to protecting the hunters that the saboteurs must continue to wear masks to protect their identities. Unsurprisingly, the activists, who engage in non-violent tactics to save lives, continue to be vilified as “terrorists” by lawmakers and the media while the illegal hunters are portrayed as the victims. One way to thank and help the hunt saboteurs who put their safety on the line for the animals is to support their life-saving work.

A letter from PETA has prompted tennis star Andy Murray from removing references to hunting from his hotel’s website.  Here’s an excerpt: “The idea of hunting cats and dogs, such as your beloved Maggie May and Rusty, would rightly make most of us sick, and yet the animals listed on the Cromlix website have exactly the same capacity to feel pain and suffer.”

Andy Murray’s Hotel Cromlix in Scotland

Hunting is the only “sport” in which only one team knows that it’s playing.  One could argue that eating meat from free roaming animals who are hunted is more humane than eating factory farmed animals, but I can’t help but think that the majority of people who hunt do so because they enjoy killing.  And, while it’s true that the hunted animals lived freely before being killed, they often leave behind offspring who are too young to take care of themselves.  To the humans, hunting is a recreational activity, but to the the animals who are killed and orphaned, it’s a tragedy.  To learn more about hunting and to see what you can do to stop it, please visit PETA’s hunting page.