PETA Tries to Re-brand Fish as “Sea Kittens”
- Posted by: Andrew Price
- on January 12, 2009 at 7:20 pm
PETA has launched a new campaign to change the name we use to refer to those swimming things from “fish” to “sea kittens.” Here’s the rationale from PETA:
“Would people think twice about ordering fish sticks if they were called sea kitten sticks? Would sea kitten soufflé be a hot seller at the local seafood restaurant? Does fillet o’ sea kitten sound even remotely appetizing?”
I don’t know. I don’t imagine I’d ever try eating sea lion meat, but that doesn’t have much to do with the name. Catfish, on the other hand, is delicious in my experience.
There’s plenty to be said for taking animal rights more seriously. Much of it has been said by Peter Singer. But trying to convince kids that 1) fish are very similar to cats and 2) the cuteness similarity is especially important because the value of an animal’s life is proportional to its cuteness seems irresponsible at best.
Check out the Sea Kittens campaign here. Let’s hope kids pay more attention to their junior high biology teacher than PETA.
DISCUSSION: 60 Comments
Yeah, shame on PETA for trying to educate kids on the affects their diets have on the planet. I mean who cares that the ocean floor is evaporating from overfishing when a filet-o-fish just tastes so damn good. Yet another short-sighted piece from Good, choosing to criticize others positive efforts in a means to deflect from their own overly indulgent choices. How long will it take before you choose wake up and connect the dots between our diets and the climate?
nobody orders fishsticks no seriously no one orders fishsticks. Come on now we can’t eat fish. peace on that.
ok let’s just keep the kids eating hamburgers after school. Who in the hell ORDERS a fishstick comeon please
im in ur oceanz bein’ overfished for ur food
(spell check hated this post)
Why not? it worked so well for hot dogs.
how ridiculous! really, sea kittens? the idea is so stupid its funny. really, i mean wow im floored the idea even got into print. bravo peta! you have made me laugh.
There are so many jokes here to be made about eating wet pussies that, you know what, I’m almost inclined not to even do it. I mean come on…Who wants to eat sea kittens??? Who doesn’t want to eat sea kittens!!! In fact, wasn’t Ludacris’s last chart topping single all about eating wet kittens?
This post fails to answer so many of my questions, not the least-pressing of which is: What do the kittens have to say about this? You know, the wise ones with cynical world views, the faculty of language, and (amazingly!) opposable thumbs, who compose their owners’ Christmas greeting cards?
Honestly, I get the bitter humor in this concept of using “sea kitties” to point out the arbitrary nature of human judgement for decency, but does PETA really think it’s going to win people over by being snide and condescending? Negative reinforcement never works. Give people viable and accessible alternatives and they will change, make fun of them, and they’ll hate and disregard you.
I had more respect for PETA when they were throwing blood on people wearing fur. This is the most idiotic thing I’ve seen in a long time–equating fish to mammals–doing kids a real favor. They can now join the other keepers-of-the-bad-science flame: evolution deniers.
I think there is logic in the last comment. As impotent as this rebranding campaign seems, given how far up against the wall we are on the fate of our fisheries it’s hard to knock anyone for trying anything. Rather than changing our understanding of what we’re eating, a real campaign on the trajectory of the food source, and it’s ecological implications, would be of better use. As this post seems a bit on the serious side for this thread, I’ve also included a link to my favorite underwater rap song – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRHP73L8rXs – let’s not forget that 2pac was in this band.
I feel so sorry for parents now days. Their kids don’t wanna eat this, drink that, drive in this car, play with this, wear whatever. Sheez, let the parents do the educating and we’ll leave peta up to the not-so-convincing campaigns.
Not so sure about leaving it up to the parents but conversations like these always make me wonder…What would Puff Daddy do? – http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/154583/
Choosing to be a vegetarian is a choice. This is ultimately PETA’s great failing. While asking that others respect their wishes, they ignore the wishes of others. That aside, campaigns like this one, or the “Got Beer” campaing are so utterly inane that it becomes very difficult to take them seriously.
Ridiculous….if you try to curl up and hug your pet fish like you hug your kitten, it’ll die. What a boneheaded idea…
Those Sea Kittens look delicious. :pThough if Finding Nemo didn’t turn kids away from fish what makes them think this lame fake renaming will do anything but make themselves look dumb.
I eat kittens. I eat fish. Would this be extra delicious to me?
Is PETA trying to prevent other species from eating fish or just humans?
So, it’s OK to eat Kittens now?
ummm… what PETA don’t realise is that any marketing firm that can convince people that fish=kittens can probably convince people to just eat kittens. also: we abhore whale meat but that isn’t a cute name at all. so… ?
Don’t cats eat fish???
Sea kitten sounds so delicious
Do crabs count as seas kittens?
seriously, what restaurant serves fishsticks? So ok, overfishing is a problem. Got it. Sea kittens? Not really going to solve that problem. See, little old white ladies like kittens. A lot. SO wouldn’t they want to buy lots of fish if they were called kittens? Those fish would serve as mediocre pets and then die lonely. Not such a good life cycle for those fish. OR seakittens would sound just as attractive as catfish. I like my catfish. And so, catfish seakittens would sound like an exotic meal. And it would popular. So just leave fish as fish and we’ll figure out another, more intelligent, way to deal with this overfishing disaster, ok PETA?
Ya, i agree PETA does so much good for the Planet. I mean if they didnt kill 96.9% of the animals they rescued we would be overruned by Cats and dogs. I mean these are amazing, they can walk around with illegal guns, and have names like http://www.kfccruelty.com I for one say we should all have names like this! This is just comon sense people wake up and smell the Tofu PETA doesnt have close minded views at all! Any organazation, that is quoted saying “even if the cure for all the worlds dieses could come from testing on animals we would still be against it” I for one tip my hat to PETA for being able to make people believe they do more good then evil