17
Apr
‘Serving Fish at an Aquarium like Serving Poodle Burgers at a Dog Show’
- posted at 3:38 AM
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That’s what it said in a letter we just fired off to London Aquarium director Audrey Summers, urging her to stop serving marine animals in the aquarium’s café and to cancel the lease of the Japanese restaurant in the aquarium’s building. Fish are intelligent, they feel pain just as all animals do, and it’s just plain wrong to serve up dead fish in an aquarium that teaches people about the wonders of, well, fish.
This is what the letter said:
Dear Ms. Summers:
I am writing on behalf of the European affiliate of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), which is the largest animal rights organisation in the world, to ask that you stop selling fish in your aquarium’s café and cancel the lease for Ozu, the Japanese restaurant that is housed in your building. We’re sure that upon further reflection, you’ll come to agree with us that serving marine animals at an aquarium is like serving poodle burgers at a dog show.
Experts from around the world report that fish are intelligent, sensitive and interesting animals. Fish and Fisheries published an article in 2003 which cited more than 500 research papers that show that fish possess long-term memories, complex social structures and learning patterns, and the ability to use tools and even build things. In some respects, the cognitive abilities of fish surpass those of dogs and even some non-human primates. In light of these discoveries, an institution with a mission that includes teaching people to respect and appreciate marine animals certainly shouldn’t offer their corpses for sale in its café and restaurant.
The treatment of both commercially caught fish and those who are raised on fish farms would warrant cruelty-to-animals charges in the United Kingdom if animals we are more familiar with, such as dogs and cats, were treated as badly. When fish are caught in huge commercial fishing nets and then hauled up from the deep, the intense internal pressure caused by decompression ruptures their swim bladders, pops their eyes out of their faces, and pushes their esophagi and stomachs out through their mouths. Fish who are raised on fish farms are crowded together so tightly that they must be drugged so that they can live in conditions that would otherwise kill them. When they are killed, fish are beaten with clubs or packed in ice while they are still alive, or they might have their gills and bellies slit, all while they are still conscious.
Serving fish also poses a health risk to your visitors. Fish absorb all the contamination from the water in which they live, so fish flesh is laced with toxins such as mercury, lead, arsenic, PCBs, pesticides and even industrial-strength fire retardant. Consuming even small amounts of fish has been shown to affect memory and coordination in adults. The Food Standards Agency advises pregnant and breastfeeding women to avoid eating oily fish such as tuna, shark, swordfish and marlin as the mercury in the fish can harm the developing nervous system of an unborn child. Of course, all fish is contaminated, though some fish is more contaminated than others. So in addition to being cruel, serving fish flesh is also poisoning your patrons.
Sincerely,
Lauren Bowey
Campaign Coordinator
PETA Europe Ltd.
(ahem) go into any zoo cafe or ‘animal farm’ cafe bar.. and the very pigs and cows you saw - their cousins or same species friends nevertheless will be served up on your plate as aka ’sausages’ or sheperd’s pie.. or even the odd burger and chips.
I think people don’t really always put the two and two together.. they will ooh and aah a little baby lamb at a farm and say piglets are so cute.. and then thing is.. they will be chomping down lamb chops or the very things they thought were so cute and ‘adorable’ and ‘loveable’ ..
same case as the aquarium I suppose..