Maybe I’m not making sense, but I’m pissy

Below is an article where PETA is trying to get everyone riled up about
the atrocity that the Aquarium is commiting by serving seafood in its
establishment.

Aquarium Shouldn’t Serve Fish, PETA Says: The animal rights group asks the Long Beach attraction to get seafood off its menu.
By Amanda Covarrubias
Times Staff Writer
June 28, 2005

An animal rights group wants the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach to gut its cafeteria menu of fish and seafood, arguing that “serving fish at an aquarium is like serving poodle burgers at a dog show.”

Like Lilo in the animated “Lilo and Stitch,” who refused to make a tuna sandwich for her friend, Pudge, a fish, because it would be “an abomination,” the head of the Fish Empathy Project for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said serving fish at an aquarium just isn’t right. “An institution with a mission that includes teaching people to respect and appreciate marine animals certainly shouldn’t serve fish in its cafeteria,” Karin Robertson wrote last week in a letter to Jerry Schabel, the aquarium’s chairman and chief executive.

Robertson, who runs a website called fishinghurts.com, said recent studies have showed that fish are “intelligent, sensitive and interesting animals.” [http://www.fishinghurts.com/]

“Fish are far more intelligent than previously thought, and in some respects their cognitive abilities surpass those of dogs and some nonhuman primates,” she wrote to Schabel. “The treatment of both commercially caught fish and fish from fish farms would warrant cruelty-to-animals charges in your state if animals we are more familiar with, like dogs and cats, were treated as badly.”

Aquarium officials say they won’t ban from their kitchens sustainable seafood, such as tilapia, farmed clams and wild-caught Alaskan salmon, that can be replenished through such means as fish farms. The facility said it co-sponsors a Seafood Watch program with the Monterey Bay Aquarium designed to educate the public about the types of fish that are safe to eat and those to avoid because they are endangered or are caught using methods harmful to other sea creatures.

“Like PETA, we are committed to animals and their conservation, and we appreciate that commitment,” Schabel said in a statement Monday. She said some people coming to the aquarium “may want to eat seafood. Rather than eat seafood from unsustainable sources, we stand committed to offering them the alternative of eating only sustainable or environmentally friendly seafood.”

The 1.25 million people who visit the aquarium each year can choose from an array of seafood dishes, including clam chowder, rainbow trout and catfish, as well as tilapia and salmon, said spokeswoman Marilyn Padilla.

Despite the aquarium’s denying her request, Robertson said she will send letters to other aquariums around the country to point out what she calls the hypocrisy of their menus.

“They should be serving exclusively vegetarian food, not just for the health of their patrons but for the animals they contend to be supporting,” she said Monday. “They don’t sell elephant burgers at the zoo, and they shouldn’t be selling fish at aquariums.”

Copyright 2005 Los Angeles Times

Here’s the thing that pisses me off. Their stupid quotes and far out
comparisons. Who the hell is going to listen to them after saying
“serving fish at an aquarium is like serving poodle burgers at a dog
show.” Please. And that Lilo reference doesn’t mean anything, because
she was talking about feeding fish to a fish (which when you grow up,
you realize is the way of life), I am sure that she’d have been happy
to eat it herself had she not been in front of her little pet in the
aquarium. Whatever- it’s a freakin’ cartoon.

The last line just kills me:
“They should be serving exclusively vegetarian food, not just for the
health of their patrons but for the animals they contend to be
supporting,” she said Monday. “They don’t sell elephant burgers at the
zoo, and they shouldn’t be selling fish at aquariums.”

Dude, we are not going to be able to impose our idealism on people by
stripping away options like that. You know what they’re gonna do? Go
eat at one of the many fantastic restaurants in walking distance from
the Aquarium, like Bubba Gumps, Outback, Chili’s, PF Chang’s, etc etc
etc. It’s amazing people still eat here at all with those places around
here. Besides, here is a more viable comparison, IMHO:

Forcing people to give up meat in our establishment would be like the
stance that the Catholic church has taken towards extra-marital sex:
abstain from it. And what has this done? Instead of sex education, and
teaching people how to make safe choices, people are left with little
to no choice in their sexual practices, or they completely ignore the
doctrine.

Like I have said many times before, I do believe that people can make
good choices when it comes to the types of meat that they are going to
eat. I mean, if you argue that much for the animals, then don’t say
vegetarian – go vegan. Not to vegan-bash or anything. On the contrary,
I admire those with that that sort of determination. But I can’t do it.
And maybe one day we may all get there, and be able to make every
single thing that we want to make out of soylent green soy beans (and have the same pallate). Maybe then we can talk.

But for now, it’s not like serving freaking elephant burgers at a zoo,
or stupid poodle burgers at a dog show. It’s more like depriving people
of sex education and choices. If you take it all away, people aren’t
going to listen to you and do whatever the hell they want. We’re not
feeding freakin’ nemos.