PETA India Investigation Reminds People That Fish Have Feelings, Too

As we celebrate PETA India’s first ten years and many lifesaving accomplishments, we’re also reflecting on the many hard-hitting undercover investigations that have helped to open people’s eyes—and hearts—to animal suffering. All animals, from bulls and elephants to mice and fish, can feel pain and suffer when treated unkindly. By exposing cruelty in the food, fashion, entertainment, and experimentation industries, we are reshaping the way the country views animals.India is the third largest commercial fish killing nation in the world. Last year, PETA India launched a groundbreaking investigation of the fishing industry in India, and showed everyone just how fish suffer when they’re dragged from the ocean depths. They’re impaled, crushed, suffocated and gutted, all while they’re still conscious. Other sea animals, including dolphins, turtles, and whales, often get caught in commercial fishing nets, along with the fish, and their battered bodies are thrown overboard, where they slowly bleed to death or fall prey to swarming birds and other animals.Farmed fish fare no better. They live in polluted, toxic water, just as sea-faring fish, and the cramped, filthy ponds give them skin infections. On one farm, PETA India’s investigators couldn’t even see the fish because the water was full of faeces, drugged feed and animal corpses.

You can help these smart, sensitive animals, who can use tools and recognize their “shoal mates,” just by pledging never to eat fish. And spread the word, “fish are friends, not food!”