Quantcast

PETA Brings Campaign Under the Sea

0109SEAKITTENS.jpg
Pictured: screenshots from PETA's Sea Kitten site.

Hey pescatarians (that means you too, "vegetarians" who eat fish), you are officially on PETA's radar. Newsday is reporting that "in attempt to pressure consumers with guilt, the group wants fish to be rebranded as 'sea kittens'." They've launched a website and set up a fact sheet about sea kittens, saying they feel pain and affection.

Tara the Tuna and Tony the Trout are two characters who show up in children's stories on the site, leading some to wonder if the organization is "targeting the emotions of impressionable youngsters." You can even create your own Sea Kitten, and for the adults who may like to catch their own delicious Tony the Trout—there's a PETA site for you, too, called Fishing Hurts. Recently, the organization freed a 140-year-old lobster from a retirement at City Crab and Seafood.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

Comments [rss]

  • dd7

    Obviously, a lot of non-vegans on this site are extremely threatened by PETA (maybe they're feeling guilty?)

    I don't agree with everything PETA does, but PETA is extremely effective at raising people's awareness about the rights of animals. Their work has relieved many animals - both domestic and agricultural - of suffering, and they continue to do great work. Please don't knock something you know nothing about.

  • JMH

    Dear PETA,



    Go away.



    Signed,

    Everyone else

  • starrygordon

    'So why is it that every time I see something from PETA, it pisses me off to no end?'

    Because that's their intention. Provoking anger and derision is excellent advertising and suggests that the conventional attitudes towards meat and other uses of animals are debatable. The more they're denounced, the more the word is spread. And, as is usually the case, the conventional people make themselves look bad by playing dumb and thuggy.

    I have some serious disagreements with PETA, but I have to admit they're very effective, as this discussion demonstrates.

  • chopp3r
    I have some serious disagreements with PETA, but I have to admit they're very effective, as this discussion demonstrates.


    Hahahahaha!

  • Barbj8

    And if that works, they can rename cows as "milk puppies".

  • nyrangers

    I LOVE PETA! GO VEGAN!

  • eyekantspel

    I will leave the mercury-filled sea kittens alone and fight global warming -- I mean, climate change -- by eating a methane-spewing cow / land kitten.

  • breaknight

    I enjoy my sea kitten sauteed in butter, w/a little lemon. Mmmm.



    PETA is a joke.

  • camera_club

    and how about those "air kittens" taking down that plane!

  • JenChungsBaby

    I bet that plane killed some Hudson River sea kittens, not to mention the air kittens it crashed into. Alert PETA!!!

  • nycat

    That would be "sky puppies"

  • camera_club

    vegetarianism is progressive

  • Thespis

    Wow, kitten of the sea. Jessica Simpson is really going to be confused by this one.

  • FelixtheCat & Christine Quinn'

    @billiamsburg, you are a coward, of course you can kick a defenseless dog, but I dare you to try that with me. Cowards are animal abusers.

  • Thespis

    On behalf of cowards everywhere, you've got that backwards. Animal abusers are cowards -- but that doesn't mean cowards are animal abusers. Some cowards are lions, in fact...

  • FelixtheCat & Christine Quinn'

    agreed, all animal abusers are cowards and not vice versa

  • Billiamsburg

    Just for this annoyance and listening to the hippie wack job tinfoil hat wearing peta fans in the comment section i'm gonna go home and kick my dog in the ribs.

  • matty

    catfish?

  • FelixtheCat & Christine Quinn'

    Really, every pot bellied man is a meat eater. Forget the women that eat meat all their cellulite on their trunk legs is gross. I am a vegetarian and I am not overweight but quite lean. Have you seen the peta girls. they are drop dead gorgeous.

  • Kyle T

    Not to knock it, because I am veggie and have been for a long time, but there are a lot of fat vegetarians. My observation is that it's people who are just lazy and don't care what they are eating and not taking responsibility for what they put into their bodies. There are a lot of unhealthy foods that are vegetarian.

  • lucyvanpelt

    It's all the carbs and fats you're eating to replace the protein. I'm a really bad on-again/off-again vegetarian, and an even worse on-again/off-again vegan (read: hypocrite). Every time I give up meat and/or dairy, I balloon up. Most of my vegan buds have the same issue. It's often *harder* to lose weight on a veg or vegan diet than if you were to include lean meat.



    Tasty, tasty lean meat. Ummmm, sea kitten . . .

  • Kyle T

    Hey now Lucy, I didn't say that I was getting fat from being veggie, I was lucky when I was young and had an uncle who was veggie who drilled whole wheat and whole grain into me as well as passing along some cooking skills. To you, I would say don't replace meat with carbs like pasta (which is what a lot of people do) but find some good tofu and bean recipes and get cooking.

  • lucyvanpelt

    Sorry, Kyle! I didn't mean to imply anything. I meant "you" in a general, not specific sense. Yeah, I eat way too many carbs when I go veg . . .

  • The Edge

    Why are there so many fat vegetarians/vegans?



    That's what always gets me.

  • FelixtheCat & Christine Quinn'

    thefacts is probably a NYC carriage drivers that abuses those poor horses. I do note that the same persons that hate Peta are the first to post in any PETA news.

    We are in the midst of a global crisis. Most people don't know that we are the cause of this crisis. We don't own the earth and until we can't find a way to live with this planet, then our own annihilation as well as the planet's is certain.

    What is true is that people that abuses animals. abuse people. it is not surprisingly that exEX makes such cruel comments when he supports the bombing of schools in Gaza.

    Also noone is forcing anything on anyone here, it is the animals that are forced to be tortured and abused by us.

  • thefacts

    FelixtheCat is a PETAphile.

  • woodendesigner

    I'm going out right now and buying some Sea Kitten for dinner. Maybe some Sea Kitten fajitas. Mmmmmmmmm..... Sea Kitten.



    Also I just found this t-shirt that would work for this thread.



    http://www.cracksmokingshirts.com/Animals-Taste-Good-T-Shirt-p41.html



    Yummy yummy Sea kitten!!!!

  • Politburo

    Gee PETA, shame has worked so well in the past, right?

  • camera_club

    "One day the time will come when we look upon the murder of animals as we now look upon the murder of men."

  • ides_of_march

    Uhm, cats and kittens LOVE to eat fish.



    You'd think a group that considers itself an authority on animals would have spotted the irony in this.

  • Nyctini11

    LMAO! - thefacts

    Seriously, there isn't enough money(to afford vegan/vegetarian living for all) OR enough resources to feed everyone. I love animals of all kind, we have 4 pets, HOWEVER, it's my body, my choice, how is PETA any different than say, Anti-Abortion activists, trying to force us to live by their morals. We live in a society based on freedom of choice. I have no issue with people fighting for causes they believe in but, stop trying to force me to live by your beliefs.

  • Politburo

    To my knowledge, PETA does not call for laws to ban the eating of meat/fish or the wearing of fur. So I don't see them as being like anti-abortion groups in that regard. They are much more oriented towards shame and shock tactics and boycotts.



    Our society has freedom of choice, but also freedom of speech. PETA is free to buy advertisements in an attempt to change your behavior, and sites like Gothamist are allowed to give them free publicity because they know it will generate many page views...

  • This is a brilliant Halloween idea for my cats! I just need to find tails and scales (maybe big sequins?).

  • JRod5417

    This is just so stupid.

  • ides_of_march

    If vegetarianism turns people stark raving mad as the PETA folks seem to be, they'll simply send people rushing off to find the nearest cheeseburger.



    PETA is a cult that hasn't realized most of their ideas don't go over too well with the non-brainwashed general public.

  • thefacts

    News Alert: PETA Seeks Ban on Antibiotics Because it Kills Bacteria.

  • handsomedevil

    It's OK to eat fish, cause they don't have any feeeelings.

  • RedWhiteandBrooklyn

    "If it's smaller then me, slower than me and dumber than me it's called 'lunch'."

    Tony Bourdain (who is much more fun to eat & drink with than any member of PETA)

  • Rocknrope

    I love animals. I really love animals. So why is it that every time I see something from PETA, it pisses me off to no end?

  • The Edge

    Fun fact: Buddhists can and do eat meat -- they just can't cook it themselves.

  • REALITY CHECK

    Sea kittens grow up to be catfish.

  • PETA



    People Eating Tasty Animals

  • JenChungsBaby

    I like my sea kittens the same way I like my regular old land-based feline kittens: broiled with butter and garlic.

  • Kyle T

    I didn't know you could get them like that, I thought the choices were general tsao, teryaki, and kung-pao.

  • FrankMartin



    For me, PETA just came to the "tipping point".

  • ides_of_march

    I see those protien starved brains at PETA are hard at work again.



    Animal rights activist = whackjob looney.



    Pass me the foie gras please.

  • Kyle T

    Sea Kittens? I don't know man. I Stopped eating all meat about 15 years ago and I didn't need PETA to disguise fish as something furry and cute for me to decide it wasn't necessary for me to kill something to survive. But then again, I have that view and don't shove it in anyone's face.

  • fakenewyorker

    are peta illiterate? that sentence is horrendous.

  • kcin122

    why don't they focus on over fishing and how its destroying the oceans rather than being fucking idiots like usual.

  • NannyState

    I dined on 'sea kitten' last evening. It was delicious!

  • longacre

    I just had a can of sea kitten for lunch. NOM NOM NOM.

blog comments powered by Disqus

send a tip

tips@gothamist.com