In a letter that went out to sports editors of newspapers, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is asking newspapers to abandon their fishing columns.

“If you're not ready to cancel the fishing column, perhaps you can ask your publisher to move it to a more appropriate section of the paper--for example, the crime report or the obituaries, where it will blend right in," wrote Karen Robertson, the “Fish Empathy” Project Manager for PETA, which claims to be the world’s largest animal rights organization.

Outdoor writers scoff at this rhetoric. PETA ignores or denies the fact that 99 percent of our modern human attributes—those that define us as a species--developed during the Pleistocene time period. During that period hominid primates (early humans) evolved to present levels of sophistication because they learned to survive by outsmarting large, dangerous animals. PETA only points to research from animal behaviorists that shows that fish are sensitive, intelligent and interesting individuals—on the same level as your family pet.

Too bad this group, which spends its time and resources branding family-level recreational anglers as hook-wielding fish killers, doesn’t attack a few real issues that would benefit a much broader spectrum of nature.

Water quality might be a good start.

FS