Do you ever feel a slight twinge of guilt when digging into a plate of baked salmon, envisioning the poor fish frolicking with its family and thinking deep thoughts? Yeah, me neither. But PETA hopes to change that. Their “Fishing Empathy” (seriously) campaign kicked off yesterday. It’s built around convincing folks that fish are more intelligent than we thought (based on several recent studies). “No one would ever put a hook through a dog’s or cat’s mouth. Once people start to understand that fish, although they come in different packaging, are just as intelligent, they’ll stop eating them,” says PETA’s Bruce Friedrich with that characteristic PETA blend of earnestness, hope, and slight creepiness.
Reception thus far has been, shall we say, skeptical.
