THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 4, 1996 TAG: 9602040205
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BOB HUTCHINSON
LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines
When I first heard that an animal-rights organization was getting ready to target sport fishing, I almost laughed out loud.
But then I heard that the organization was People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. All of a sudden, it wasn't so funny.
Not only is the group known for its flamboyant approach, but there are strong indications that it has close ties to the Animal Liberation Front, an underground terrorist group.
Then I heard that PETA was planning to move its national headquarters from Rockville, Md., to downtown Norfolk. I realized there was absolutely nothing funny at all about the matter.
These folks - up to 90 strong, according to reports - will be around Hampton Roads 365 days (and nights) a year.
Last fall, PETA spokesman Mike McGraw told Bassin' magazine that the organization planned to kick off a coast-to-coast anti-fishing campaign in 1996, led by Tracy Reiman.
A vegetarian, Reiman is the group's campaign coordinator and has organized an annual national ``Fish Amnesty Day,'' on which PETA will encourage anglers not to fish.
Not ironically, it's the same date as National Hunting and Fishing Day.
For decades, sportsmen's groups across the nation have gathered to share with the public the pleasures, techniques and heritage of hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation. The program has included seminars, clinics, demonstrations, and kids' programs and contests.
The PETA effort even has a name: Save Our Schools Anti-Fishing Campaign.
The PETA folks have engaged the services of Pisces, an anti-fishing organization that has succeeded in banning sport fishing in several waters of England, where it is headquartered, and in Germany.
Demonstrations and projects in Europe, according to Bassin', have included scuba-equipped saboteurs scaring fish from beneath tournament anglers, and animal-rights activists wading into the water, venturing into fishing areas by boat or flailing the water with poles and rocks to frighten off fish.
In this country, the program took its first active step in November. Pollsters posing as researchers for the ``National Survey On Sport Fishing'' descended on piers, beaches, lakes and rivers in four cities with a 21-question survey.
Targeted cities included Seattle; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; San Francisco; Baton Rouge, La.; Vancouver, British Columbia; and Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The questions in the survey:
Do you like animals?
Is there another pastime, other than fishing, you find equally enjoyable?
Do you hunt? If not, why not?
Do you think fish have nerve endings in their mouths?
Do you think fish feel pain?
What do you think fish are experiencing when they flop around after being caught?
What is your favorite animal?
Do you have a cat? A dog?
What do you think makes your pet different from a fish?
How do you kill the fish you catch?
Do you believe that ``catch-and-release'' fishing is better than regular fishing? If so, why? If not, why not?
Do you eat the fish you catch?
Do you think fishing is a good activity for children? If so, why?
Do you believe killing animals is violent?
What could someone do to a fish that you would consider cruel?
How often do you go fishing?
Approximately how many fish do you catch in a month?
Would you say anything if you saw someone else torturing a fish for fun?
Do you think fish should be protected in any way?
Have your feeling about animals changed over your life? If so, how?
What do you think it feels like to suffocate?
Certainly fish feel pain. That's why tarpon jump and bonefish run. Certainly they have nerve endings in their mouths. And suffocation has to be a terrible way to die.
Who can say, unequivocally, that a carrot feels nothing when it is cut from the stalk or that a tomato is painless when sliced?
Anyway, life is harsh. People get killed in auto accidents and suffer incredibly from disease. Beautiful kids die before they're even 10 years old. And war is hell.
Today, man has established himself as Earth's most advanced creature. We're at the top of the list. But 10,000 years from now it may be the deer tick, purveyor of Lyme disease, at the top. I don't think a deer tick worries that the person it bites might die from the experience.
It's too bad that PETA, other animal-rights organizations and similar zealots don't focus their attention instead on the world's declining resources, including fish.
It would be better, for example, if they concentrated on the incredible waste of the shrimp-trawl fishery. These people kill and dump countless numbers of baby fish.
Besides, I know of few edible fish, caught and kept by sport anglers, that go to waste. It happens, but not often. Of the hundreds of billfish caught off Virginia in 1995, only about three were brought ashore. At least two were mounted.
The same with deer. They're utilized. This past season, Virginia's Hunters for the Hungry program donated more than 100,000 of venison to needy families. It was donated by hunters.
PETA. Maybe it should stand for Please Educate These Activists. by CNB