THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Wednesday, May 15, 1996                TAG: 9605150004
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A12  EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Letter 
                                             LENGTH: Short :   38 lines

TEACH FISH NOT TO EAT FISH

I presume that almost everyone knows that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is locating its headquarters in Norfolk.

While some of PETA's goals are surely worthy ones (i.e., stopping wanton killing of animals for their fur), others, such as ``saving the life of individual fish'' through the disruption of fishing, are not only radical but likely to be dangerous, particularly to PETA members

PETA suggests that fish and other living creatures were not placed on Earth for the purpose of becoming food. It may well be that the very purpose some creatures were put on this Earth was to become part of the food chain. Creatures consuming other creatures has been part of the food chain since the beginning of time, which certainly predates PETA.

Unless I am mistaken, many of the apostles were fishermen, Jesus fed the multitudes with fish and bread, and Catholics are guided by their church to eat fish on Friday. I believe an authority much higher than PETA has found no fault with taking and eating fish.

Considering the above, I recommend that PETA relocate to the Serengeti Plains of Africa and use its currently misguided energy to teach the predatory animals, including the big cats and crocodiles, to become vegetarians and leave the poor prey animals alone to live in peace and solitude, which I am certain would be in keeping with the PETA philosophy.

While PETA is about that task, it could also teach fish not to eat other fish.

JAMES B. LOFTIN

Virginia Beach, April 28, 1996 by CNB