Stop Hunting Sea Kittens (better known as "fishing")

People don't seem to like fish. They're slithery and slimy, and they have eyes on either side of their pointy little heads—which is weird, to say the least. Plus, the small ones nibble at your feet when you're swimming, and the big ones—well, the big ones will bite your face off if Jaws is anything to go by.

Of course, if you look at it another way, what all this really means is that fish need to fire their PR guy—stat. Whoever was in charge of creating a positive image for fish needs to go right back to working on the Britney Spears account and leave our scaly little friends alone. You've done enough damage, buddy. We've got it from here. And we're going to start by retiring the old name for good. When your name can also be used as a verb that means driving a hook through your head, it's time for a serious image makeover. And who could possibly want to put a hook through a sea kitten?

Given the drastic situation for this country's sea kittens—who are often the victims of many major threats to their welfare and ways of life—it's high time that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) stop allowing our little sea kitten friends to be tortured and killed. Who'd want to hurt a sea kitten anyway?!

Sea kittens are just as intelligent (not to mention adorable) as dogs and cats, and they feel pain just as all animals do.   (from http://www.peta.org/Sea_Kittens/index.asp)

I’m a fisherman.  Does that also make me a speciest dinosaur?

Perhaps.

Maybe I’m caught in old ways of thinking, of what some have called “neandrathink.”  But it doesn’t seem to me that what a fish is or is not is subject to PR. 

Yes, words shape ideas and ideas shape us, no doubt about it.  But that’s precisely the problem. 

To think of a fish like a kitten, in the ways we currently understand what “kitten” means, is tremendously inaccurate, inviting  a host of behaviors harmful to both groups of animals (like “petting” a fish, which would remove its protective mucous, and result in life threatening fungus and disease.)

The big question is whether or not fish feel pain.    The question itself is problematic.  What exactly are we talking about?   

Is it simply a matter of stimulus and response?  If so, plants have certain reactions to certain stimulus (ie, cut bark and sap flows).  Do they feel pain?  We still trim the roses.

Or are we talking about something more than that, some higher level of self awareness that requires a certain level of brain development?  I know it is a rather crude illustration, so please forgive me, but say you hit a snake with a lawnmower while cutting the grass, severing its head completely.  The body still responds to stimulus.  It is not feeling pain.

My point is that the answers have to be based on something other than what somebody does or doesn’t like, what does or doesn’t offend them on a personal level.   Otherwise, you can extend the arguments so that it is barbaric to weed a garden.

I can understand the "sea-kitten" argument.  I can appreciate it, and even feel its force.  But though my wife will disagree with me, that doesn’t mean I find it convincing…  yet!

Comments

[mindy]

The sea kitten discussion at our house has tended more toward the "mmm, kitten meat" horrible end of the spectrum...since the only fish anybody around here eats much is tuna, and the cat is...well...not entirely beloved.

How is PETA measuring pescan intelligence, anyway? (and is pescan actually a word?) I'm glad to know about protective mucous as well. Next time we have a tank full of goldfish (none at the moment, but could change at any time) I'll restrain myself from petting them.

Thanks, Rob!

[PerfectTommy]

Here was my recent PETA article:

http://oncourse.ag.org/features/index.cfm?targetBay=06d52a80-8681-49b2-871b-a4e5dc1c7708&ModID=2&Process=DisplayArticle&RSS_RSSContentID=9979&RSS_OriginatingChannelID=1202&RSS_OriginatingRSSFeedID=3459&RSS_Source=

[jan]

On the basis of having looked at that peta page the next time I'm at the store, I'm buying fish for dinner — and I rarely eat fish.