Source: PRESS RELEASE, 4/1/21

“I’m ME, Not MEAT.” That’s the message from the fish who appears in PETA’s new ad across the street from a Captain D’s restaurant—of which there are more in Georgia than in any other state—encouraging the company to become the first seafood chain to offer one of the newest developments in healthy and sustainable food: vegan fish.

PETA is ramping up its efforts following the release of the Netflix documentary Seaspiracy, which examines the global fishing industry and challenges the notion of “sustainable” fishing. The group has praised the film for explaining how humans’ actions cause widespread environmental destruction.

“Most burger chains today are offering vegan patties, so selling a vegan fish sandwich to help the planet should be a no-brainer,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA’s billboard will help people sea the gentle and inquisitive animals behind every fish sandwich or shrimp taco.”

More fish are killed for food each year—billions in U.S. waters alone—than all other animals combined. These animals—who are now known to feel pain as acutely as mammals do, to have long-term memories, and to sing underwater—are impaled, crushed, suffocated, or cut open and gutted, all while conscious. Aquafarms, holding thousands of fish prone to becoming infested with lice from being raised in filthy and cramped enclosures, create an environmental disaster.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” and which opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview—notes that today many faux-fish options are available, including Gardein’s Golden Fishless Filets, Good Catch’s Plant-Based Tuna, New Wave Foods’ new plant-based shrimp, and Sophie’s Kitchen’s Vegan Crab Cakes.