PETA has launched a new campaign that threatens to reveal the organization as a union of performance artists instead of animal-rights activists. Their latest crusade is to convince the world that fish are intelligent individuals with hopes and dreams that should be spared from the dinner table:

Touting tofu chowder and vegetarian sushi as alternatives, animal-rights activists have launched a novel campaign arguing that fish — contrary to stereotype — are intelligent, sensitive animals no more deserving of being eaten than a pet dog or cat.

Called the Fish Empathy Project, the campaign reflects a strategy shift by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals as it challenges a diet component widely viewed as nutritious and uncontroversial.

"No one would ever put a hook through a dog's or cat's mouth," said Bruce Friedrich, PETA's director of vegan outreach. "Once people start to understand that fish, although they come in different packaging, are just as intelligent, they'll stop eating them."

Arrgh. How much further will PETA go? They've turned themselves from a semi-serious voice for humane treatment of animals into a complete joke -- although their ties to terrorist groups like the Animal Liberation Front hardly qualify as funny. Trying to convince us that catfish are the equivalent of cats point to even more silliness in the future. Will we be regaled with advertising that exhorts us to stop using antibiotics because they're cruel to microbes?

They have convinced one person that fish equate to cats and dogs, however. I'm sure that PETA will be gratified to learn that Atomizer from Fraters Libertas has added cats to the menu. We haven't received word yet from the St. Paul diocese if Catholics can eat them on Fridays...

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