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PETA
complaint misguided
Our
view
Long
Beach’s Aquarium of the Pacific
has received a complaint from the Fish
Empathy Project for People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals (PETA), managed
by Karin Robertson, about serving fish
in its cafeteria.
In a letter to the aquarium, no doubt a location that’s most certainly
a source of pride for the city with regards to tourism, education and conservation
efforts, Robertson asked that aquarium directors cease featuring fish on the
menu, explaining, “Serving fish in an aquarium is like serving poodle
burgers at a dog show.”
She also wrote, “It’s easy to think of fish as swimming vegetables
but of all places in the country where fish should get a fair shake it’s
an aquarium.”
To address the first point, Robertson’s good intentions towards creatures
of the sea fall short of a good comparison, much less standard logic.
Dog shows are competitions of canine abilities, where the dogs competing are
the sources of love and joy for the owners. The dogs hop, walk and bark in
a merry fashion that all dogs deserve.
Aquariums are displays of aquatic habitats, where the underwater life does
what it would normally do anywhere else — swim. The fish wander in a
seemingly aimless manner, eat and breed in a normal fashion fitting of fish.
And let’s not forget to mention people don’t eat poodles—burger-style
or otherwise.
But to address the matter, perhaps it is slightly morbid to serve fish at an
aquarium.
But the real deal is that most people, without even thinking hard, can easily
distinguish the difference between the beautiful live fish on display and the
lifeless slab served for lunch that in many ways does not resemble anything
close to aquarium exhibits.
Besides, the fish being served are not the ones from the tanks.
Saying it’s wrong to eat fish at an aquarium, or any meat anywhere for
that matter, is often a fruitless debate for all sides. Impassioned activists,
like those for PETA, will usually not find the same ground as most normal meat-eating
people who simply don’t care or are just plain hungry.
That said, there is another issue beyond treatment or consumption of any animal
that seems obvious but is often overlooked by the media.
When PETA or any other animal activists fight against the Aquarium of the Pacific,
Sea World or the San Diego Zoo, they are indeed fighting against groups that
share the same beliefs they do.
It is a campaign of friends against friends, neighbors against neighbors. It’s
a civil war on behalf of saving not the union, but the animal kingdom.
The Aquarium of the Pacific and Sea World actively educate the public on marine
life. The fruits of their labors are real. Their conservation efforts are real.
How is animal conservation and education of those two organizations any different
than PETA’s goals?
The San Diego Zoo breeds the beloved giant pandas and invests millions of dollars
into helping endangered species, not to mention public education. How are these
efforts conflicting with animal rights activism?
Why do people protest these organizations when they share the same values?
The animal keepers of such fine organizations as Long Beach’s Aquarium,
Sea World and the San Diego Zoo surely must love animals to the same extent
as PETA members or other animal rights activists do. |
