PETA seeks to rename high school Sea Kitten

[Newsjock]

Source: Missoulian

... The next time you hook into a lunker, and the rod tip bends as line spools out, the folks at PETA want you to look that fishy face square in the eye and think of it not as dinner, but rather as a “sea kitten.”

In fact, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals want Whitefish High School to rename itself Sea Kitten High School, encouraging everyone to refer to fish and other marine animals as sea kittens.

“We're hoping that by calling fish ‘sea kittens,' compassionate people who would never hurt a dog or a cat will realize that fish feel pain and fear, just like furry and winged animals do,” the group wrote in a letter to Whitefish principal Kent Paulson. “In fact, neurobiologists tell us that fish have complex nervous systems that comprehend and respond to pain. Fish communicate and develop relationships with one another, show affection by gently rubbing against other fish, and even grieve when their companions die.”

The name-change request - which is admittedly tongue-in cheek - is part of a national initiative on behalf of all fish species, which PETA says suffer unduly because they are not “cute and cuddly.”

Read more: http://missoulian.com/articles/2009/01/08/news/local/news04.txt

[Muttocracy]

1. I get their point, but why are they going after the high school for its name? nt

[Double T]

2. 'Sea Kitten' works for me. Every time someone hears or sees the name .........

perhaps THEY will think about the living breathing feeling creatures of the seas.

[TheWraith]

3. Even tongue in cheek, this is absurdly fucking idiotic. More so than usual even for PETA.

These guys need to disband and be replaced by a credible animal rights group staffed by ADULTS. All they do now is make the entire cause look like utter kooks.

[DJ13]

4. The school football uniforms would be an embarassment to those kids

[alarimer]

5. Oh for pete's sake!

This is utterly ridiculous. First, as a marine biologist, PETA is full of shit. Talk about anthropomorphic nonsense. Fish have brains about the size of a peanut, hardly enough for higher brain functions.

[flvegan]

10. "Fish have brains about the size of a peanut"

The whale shark, albeit a very large fish, has a brain a meter long. Probably shouldn't generalize.

"Fish" can indeed feel pain? Suffer? Which higher brain functions specifically warrant not killing a living being for sport or food?

Oh, and why?

Yeah, PETA is kinda full of nonsense on this campaign, which is their point. Just curious as to your educated response to the above.

[tularetom]

6. I think our "real" kitties will become vegans

because they sure as hell wouldn't want to eat food made from the ground up bodies of their finned cousins.

[Drum]

7. Lol

:D

[arcadian]

8. What about clown fish? They are cute and cuddly.

Unless you cuddle them to long and they dry out in the sun.

[donco6]

9. ~not touching this thread with a 10 foot pole~ n/t

[flvegan]

11. And once again, the DU does just what PETA wants it to, outrage, mockery and all.

I'm sure they'd be thanking you.

[Ikonoklast]

12. I'm going to have to sadly inform my actual terrestrial kitties

that from now on, they are to become vegetarians, and to stop eating seafood of any kind.

I just don't know how to change twenty-five million years of carnivorous evolution by fiat.

[Chulanowa]

13. Well, that's just fantastic

I can't help but think PETA would be more successful if it spent more time actually trying to help animals rather than squandering donor dollars on these "ideas"...

Of course fish feel pain. So what is PETA doing about it? trying to tackle the fishing industry which also happens to be rendering the majority of commercial fish extinct? Perhaps they want to do something about fish farms that taint native populations both in fresh and salt water?

No, they want to rename a high school. Tongue-in-cheek or not, I can think of some far more productive maneuvers.

[qazplm]

14. isnt that the bottom line?

PETA actually drives away folks who might otherwise be sympathetic.

ASPCA and similar organizations do much more for animals than PETA ever has.

[Chulanowa]

17. I'm not so sure that they're "driving folks away"

After all, people who are sympathetic aren't going to look at PETA and go "fuck the animals, I'm going to use this donation to get me some hamburgers" - they'll put it towards something more effective, such as the ASPCA, rescue operations, or even Sea Shepherd. So they're not being driven away from "the cause"

I just feel that for all the money they do get, PETA could be more... y'know, useful. I've seen Kindergarteners come up with (and enact!) better methods of protecting animals than I've seen out of PETA in the last five years. it really looks to me like they're intentionally playing to the Right's "loony left" meme... Maybe they are being useful to someone...

[uppityperson]

15. Does that mean I will need to spay/neuter my fishtank fish?I mean sea kittens?Or freshwater kittens?

[Vickers]

16. Doesn't work with me...I fucking hate kittens.

I keed, I keed!

:P