Sea Kittens

[Akatosh]

Seems like PETA has finally passed the total nut borderline and is still picking up speed. I mean... what?

HEALTH WARNING: May lead to a fair deal of head-desking.

[lo_res_man]

Ooh, I love cuteness, I like Pingu and Wall*E and LOLcats and baby hedgehogs and Beatrix Potter and Little Bear, and all manner of other cute things. But this, this is disgusting, it breaches even my line between, 'oooh, so. . . cuuute!*squeal!*' and, 'where would I be able to procure some bags for the disposal of partially precessed former food stuffs?'

[SSH]

Pingu eats sea kittens, so its good enough for me!

[Layabout]

Hah, yes, I already mentioned this nuttyness in passing in the Free Range meat thread.

Essentially what they are saying is Jesus was evil because he ate a fish, if your mind is as warped as mine.

[Ghost]

I feel a sudden urge to head-shot fish sticks.

[Nacho]

What are sea kittens? I' ve googled and I only get weird explanations about a PETA way of calling the fishes...

[Mr Flibble]

This is exactly, exactly why I hate PETA.

[Play_Pretend]

Nacho: It's an attempt at propaganda, like KFC suddenly being "Kitchen Fresh Chicken" because fried is a bad word.  PETA is saying they think people won't want to catch or hurt fish if they were called something cuter like sea kittens.

[Babar]

I....don't understand. Why would anyone get worked up over this? Does it matter what you (or anyone else) calls a fish? Does it matter if an organisation that has dedicated itself to the prevention of.....hurting of animals launches a campaign in an attempt to bring sympathy to these animals? While someone might not be affected by it, or might consider it to be misguided, why would it affect anyone to the extent of 'head-desking' or head-shotting fish-sticks?

[Andail]

By the thread title I thought this was about some new maritime AGS-meeting.

[zabnat]

Is PETA really an abbreviation of People Eating Tasty Animals?

[space boy]

This seems like a double plus good idea.

[Sam.]

This is exactly, exactly why I hate PETA.

Why? Over fishing is a serious problem, not just because it is bad for the fish, it's bad for the world. Some organisation is trying a novel, admittedly kitsch, idea to get people to think about fishing and where their fish come from. You hate PETA?

For a non vegetarian such as myself, some of the stuff PETA does doesn't really connect with how I think stuff should be, but they're not exactly bad guys for wanting to protect animals are they?

[Nacho]

Thanks Strange

[Akatosh]

While someone might not be affected by it, or might consider it to be misguided, why would it affect anyone to the extent of 'head-desking' or head-shotting fish-sticks?

Because of how ridiculous and ham-fisted it is. It's a good ol' attempt at manipulating people through language, but in an extremly clumsy and retarded way. I mean, Sea Kittens? That's a bit like trying to get people to call roaches 'Ground Butterflies' and hope that will guilt the population into showing them more sympathy... only less subtle and even more retarded, because fish and felines have basically nothing in common.

But then again, I'm just a CRUEL AND CARNIVOROUS DEVOURER OF TEAR-STAINED DEAD ANIMAL CORPSES. 

[MoodyBlues]

So instead of trying to get us to appreciate fish for what they are, PETA felinamorphizes them because humans are incapable of loving anything that isn't OMGSH LOL KAWAII CUTE ^_^.

"No one would hurt a sea kitten!"  Of course not, because THEY DON'T EXIST.  Unless you're talking about baby catfish.

[Tuomas]

That does it, I'm never eating fish again. From now on it's only those small cats... skinned alive and boiled alive. Yummy, makes the meat tender.

[Mr Flibble]

People only care about protecting cute animals, that's my problem with this.

[Sam.]

So the irony of that webpage just whistled past you then?

[Darth Mandarb]

Do Carp count as 'Sea Kittens'?  Because, really ... Carp are nasty.  Seriously.  I have no desire to snuggle with that sucker.

Even if:

Sea Kitten Facts

Like their surface-dwelling cousins, the land kittens, sea kittens enjoy being petted. Their lack of arms makes it difficult for them to pet back, but they often gently rub against each other as a sign of affection.

Which I found odd because if the "land" kittens are referring to cats the last time I checked cats don't have arms and don't pet back either.  Now if land kittens is a way of referring to people ... well ... I don't get petted by people either.  I suppose you could consider some of the stuff women do with me as "petting" but that's the very last thing I want a fish ... er ... sea kitten, doing to me.

Aside from the silly-ness of it all the site is actually well put together and cutesy.  I think some of the things they do are a tad silly but PETA doesn't really bother me.  To each their own I guess.  Granted I'm only saying that from what I do know of them which, admittedly, isn't a vast well of knowledge.

[Domino]

I am surprised nobody has mentioned..,.

CHICKEN OF THE SEA

[Tuomas]

Why's there a mermaid on the can? It's like that Hungarian cheese that had an image of a bear and a ham printed on it.

[Meowster]

PETA aren't actually all that great when it comes to animal welfare. One of their slogans is something like - "better off dead than in a cage", and as such they put down something like 90% of the animals that come into their shelters without bothering to try and rehome them. I think my cats would both disagree with that slogan very much. Very little of the money they receive in donations, a paltry sum actually goes to trying to find homes for domestic animals that have been abandoned.

I was very frustrated the other day... I think it was in the Gaurdian that I read something about Sea Kittens, but the person writing it (who I believe was a PETA member) raised a lot of very interesting points about fish that we generally overlook as we see them as well, just fish. About them having as much or more cognitive ability than many animals we frequently interact with etc. I suspect very much that the points were exaggerated or worded cleverly to support her argument (I'm sure the average cod is not the kind of awesome fish she was describing to be honest), but it annoyed me because the "Sea Kitten" campaign has so far utterly failed to achieve anything despite having so much money poured into it that could have been spent on rehoming animals or something. All it's done is make people laugh, and it's failed to deliver ANY of the amazing facts that this journalist did in her few paragraphs. Have you read the online book? Tony the Tuna graduated from university with a degree in neuroscience and environmental studies? No he didn't, he's a fish!

One of my friends worked on a trawler once and after witnessing the fishing process he stopped eating fish completely. He wasn't even a particularly "animal welfarey" person like I am. It wasn't even so much the (quite painful) death of the fish that bothered him - it was the utter waste. Thousands and thousands of dead fish thrown back into the sea as utter waste because of the fishing regulations, because they 'caught too much' and aren't allowed to take it back to shore. Completely destroying our seas, needlessly killing thousands upon thousands of fish and then just throwing them back into the sea as waste...

But PETA fails to convey these issues properly to people because it alienates them by making up ridiculous stories about fish and having a totalitarian "YOU SHOULDN'T EAT FISH!" approach, when in fact I think it's quite bloody normal for cats, humans, bears, birds, even some kinds of SPIDERS to eat fish. So to tell millions of people that they're without doubt WRONG for eating fish is sort of counter productive, whereas giving them unbiased facts about the health of the ocean, the sins of trawler fishing and the ability of fish to feel pain etc is a far better idea. This may encourage people to make more informed decisions about the kind of fish they buy, or hey it might even make them buy less fish or stop them buying it at all. But no, PETA would rather spend their money agitating people which, really, is pretty unproductive.

Erm so that's the beef I have with PETA. If anybody cares, there actually is a lot to be concerned about when it comes to our oceans, but you're not going to find the information you need from PETA and you're probably not going to have your opinion swayed by them either.

Bonus fact: fish is delicious.

Essentially what they are saying is Jesus was evil because he ate a fish, if your mind is as warped as mine.

Layabout, I am amazed that anyones primary reaction to the hilarity/ridiculousness/waste of time of this PETA campaign, could be anger that it suggests jesus was evil for eating a fish. I don't know why, it just seems like the funniest, strangest and most far removed conclusion you could possibly draw from it all.

[Akatosh]

I don't know why, it just seems like the funniest, strangest and most far removed conclusion you could possibly draw from it all.

... and thus quite fitting to the unintentional hilarity and cloudcuckoolandiness (spelling may vary) of that campaign. 

[monkey0506]

That does it, I'm never eating fish again. From now on it's only those small cats... skinned alive and boiled alive. Yummy, makes the meat tender.

Peoplle for the Eating of Land Kittens! Join PELK today!

P.S. Check out mah Dang Cute Kitteh! It's the cutest dang kitteh you evar did sea!

[Layabout]

Essentially what they are saying is Jesus was evil because he ate a fish, if your mind is as warped as mine.

Layabout, I am amazed that anyones primary reaction to the hilarity/ridiculousness/waste of time of this PETA campaign, could be anger that it suggests jesus was evil for eating a fish. I don't know why, it just seems like the funniest, strangest and most far removed conclusion you could possibly draw from it all.

Haha, I am Agnostic. I just find it very ironic that vegetarians who are also Christians, will not eat fish, when their so-called saviour does. And I'm sure there were Christians at the 'sea-kitten' ideas meeting at PETA...

On another somewhat outsidey-boxey train of thought, what will Kittens eat if fish are to be called 'Sea-Kittens'? Surely not Sea-Kittens as that would be akin to cannibalism of the feline persuasion.

[Creed Malay]

 Thinking of fish in a different way probably would lead to me treating them different, just as I wouldn't balk at eating dog if I'd been brought up in some place where that was normal, like Switzerland.
I've eaten fishes with their heads and eyes still on before, I don't think I could do that if I equated them with kittens.

[Trihan]

I made my own Sea Kitten.

Then I ate it.

It tasted like fish.

[LUniqueDan]

Noooooooooo.

Just like...

No.

Just : no.

I'm not going to comment. SH++

They really just crossed the line.

(Thanks 'Tosh for the link.)

Sea kittens are just as intelligent (not to mention adorable) as dogs and cats, and they feel pain just as all animals do.

[Domino]

When Sea Kittens get older, do they become Cat Fish?

I wonder what the Cat Fish thinks about this whole thing? 

edit:



Somebody has already caught one.

[lo_res_man]

Looks like good eatin'
Nom, nom nom.
Except fer them photoshop pixels, they're jagged and get stuck in my teeth.

[deltoran]

there are crazy PETA.

if you think: PETA has crossed that line with sea kittens and that who ever created them was on drugs!
then sign the Petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/NOSEAk/petition.html

i see what there doing, but WTF with sea kittens!  :o

[Alynn]

I had lemon pepper sea kitten the other night.

It was the cat's meow. (groan)

[voh]

I really don't get the 'PETA has crossed the line' crap.

Their point is a fair one, though their way of approaching the subject is admittedly silly. When people think of animal welfare, fish aren't usually included. But there IS a problem with overfishing and a lot of people don't realize that.

PETA trying to get attention to this fact: Good.
Sea kittens: Cute, but fairly useless.

People getting pissed off by PETA and their sea kittens: Sad.

[Domino]

LimpingFish will have to change his name to LimpingSeaKitten.

It just doesn't sound right. 

[mkennedy]

Homer: MMMMM..... sea kittens.... (drool)

We can still eat sky puppies though, right?

[monkey0506]

Sorry mkennedy but sky puppies are on the out too. But if you sign my petition then we can get Land Kittens legalized for consumption!

I'd say anyone actually getting "angry" about this is taking it a bit out of hands themselves, but honestly "Sea Kittens" is beyond absurd. Which is why I created the equally absurd petition to legalize Land Kitten meat.

[lo_res_man]

I'd say anyone actually getting "angry" about this is taking it a bit out of hands themselves, but honestly "Sea Kittens" is beyond absurd. Which is why I created the equally absurd petition to legalize Land Kitten meat.

I have eaten Land Kitten.

[TerranRich]

Everytime you masturbate, God eats a land kitten.

[Dualnames]

The webpage was so retarted and all that I went and created WTF. My own kitten..fish one
http://www.peta.org/Sea_Kittens/game_F2F.asp?sea_kitten=c|tr||c0|1||c1|1||c2|1||c3|2||c4|1||c6|1||c7|1||c8|1||c9|1||c10|1||n|WTF

Forward it everywhere because Sea..ah..WTF man!!!!! 8)

[Domino]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v472/skeith2572/seakitten.png

Meow, Meow, Purr, Purr....