THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 30, 1996 TAG: 9603300281
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORT
DATELINE: PHILADELPHIA LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines
The people who brought you blood-splashed furs and liberated lobsters have trained their sights on a new target.
The fishing rod.
And the hands and hearts behind it.
This summer, the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals will hit Virginia Beach and other coastal spots, lakes and fishing holes around the country, beating the waters for a ban on sport fishing. PETA fish campaign coordinator Tracy Reiman promised that protesters, accompanied by 6-foot mascot ``Gill the Fish,'' will maneuver their boats among fishing craft.
Other protesters will ``skip rocks in the water where people are fishing,'' she said.
Protesters also have discussed blockading fishing piers, though no blockades are planned yet.
``But as time goes on, we will escalate the campaign by doing things which will actually save individual fish lives,'' Reiman said.
PETA, which is moving its headquarters to Norfolk this summer, said it would direct much of its efforts at fishing tournaments.
``We're going to start doing some protests in the area (of South Hampton Roads) partially because we're moving there,'' Reiman said. ``We're going to start out in the Southeast. Before the end of the summer we will have done one demonstration, if not more, in the Virginia Beach area.''
The animal rights movement has gained increasing respectability since a 1984 raid on a University of Pennsylvania lab where researchers inflicted head injuries on baboons.
Polls show that two-thirds of Americans believe it is seldom or never right to use animals to test cosmetics.
Fifty-nine percent say killing animals for fur is wrong. More than half believe sport hunting is wrong.
Fish, however, are farther down the food chain. Even an official with the Humane Society of the United States criticizes PETA's anti-fishing campaign in a published report as ``somewhat silly and possibly counterproductive when the movement has so many other priorities.''
PETA's Reiman, a vegetarian, said she sees it this way: ``Fish are animals.
``Lobsters are animals. Crabs are animals. Just because they don't scream doesn't mean they don't suffer.
``Fish have the brain capacity to experience fear and pain, have sensitive nerve endings in their lips and mouths.''
Reiman said the animal activist organization, which has a worldwide membership of a half-million and a galaxy of celebrity supporters, turned its attention to fishing because ``fish comprise probably the largest number of animals as a group to be killed for food or fun.''
PETA is known for confrontational tactics. Reiman said the group doesn't condone splashing blood or red paint on fur-clad people, but added, ``We don't condemn it, either.''
Another PETA-inspired demonstrator recently dressed as a pig and hopped aboard an Oscar Mayer Wienermobile proclaiming, ``Meat is Murder.''
Though PETA's anti-fishing campaign is just beginning, Reiman said Alexander Paul of ``Baywatch'' has denounced fishing and actor Woody Harrelson stopped eating fish after a scuba-diving trip.
PETA also claims wider support for its pro-fish views. According to a recent PETA-commissioned poll, nearly half those who fish said they would consider not fishing ``after learning about the cruelty involved in the sport and the health risks (of) eating fish.''
At least one scientist disputed PETA's view of fish feelings.
``I certainly can't prove that fish don't have fear, but they can't prove that they do have fear as we define it,'' said Dr. Jay Stauffer, a fly fisherman who studies fish at Penn State University.
``Fish have cranial nerves,'' he said. ``Fish will respond to stimuli, so there's certainly nerve endings there.''
Like many sport fishermen, he said he releases fish with minimal injury after he hooks them.
But PETA condemns the catch-and-release methods.
Bob Schoelkopf of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Atlantic City, N.J., pointed out that fishing has long been part of the ``food chain.''
``There's some people that think plants have feelings, too,'' he said.
``So where do you draw the line?''
MEMO: This story was compiled from reports by Knight-Ridder News Service and
Virginian-Pilot staff writer Diane Tennant.
ILLUSTRATION: Color drawing
[fish]
KEYWORDS: PETA FISHING INDUSTRY by CNB