Our Work to Help Fish
Fish have no legal protections regarding how they’re treated or slaughtered. They're forced to endure unimaginable anxiety and pain in the fishing industry. It’s time for that to change.
FISH FARMS: Most fish eaten today are raised on fish farms, which exist inland or in the ocean. Farmed fish spend their entire lives—up to two years—in crowded pens where they suffer from extreme psychological and physical torment. Due to the crowding, the high levels of ammonia and nitrates poison the fish and surrounding areas, and it’s commonplace for the fish to become infested with parasites. Bacterial infections also run rampant.
WILD-CAUGHT FISH: “Wild-caught” fish also suffer tremendously due to the fishing industry. They experience terrifying deaths when they’re yanked from their ocean homes and slaughtered. In the United States, fish aren’t covered by the Humane Slaughter Act. This results in a variety of killing methods that cause the animals prolonged agony.
Fishers remove some species from the water and leave them to slowly suffocate; and larger animals, such as tuna and swordfish, are clubbed or harpooned. Initial blows often injure the animals, but don’t kill them quickly, so the process needs to be repeated several times while the animals struggle and thrash.
2012: Animal Equality investigators in Italy went undercover and documented frantic bluefin tuna being forced into nets and pulled onto boats. The terrified animals struggled, choked, and bled to death after being violently struck with harpoons. The shocking footage, which was typical of the tuna industry, was featured in the 2014 award-winning documentary Cowspiracy.
2018: We exposed the brutality and destruction caused by trawling—scraping the sea floor—in the Mediterranean Sea. The footage we captured shows millions of fish being hoisted onto a boat, where they squirmed and gasped for air. The majority of these individuals were gutted alive or put into a freezer to suffer a slow and painful death.
Many non-target fish or sea animals, also known as “bycatch,” were thrown back into the ocean, a common practice in the fishing industry. Most animals discarded as bycatch are injured or already dead from shock, exhaustion, or sudden pressure changes that can forcefully push their organs out of their mouths.
2020: In effort to combat false marketing claims, we filed a lawsuit against Champion Petfoods. The company had been advertising some of its fish ingredients in Acana brand products with claims such as “caught by fishermen we know and trust” and “from American waters,” despite strong evidence that the fish actually came from fish farms.
We resolved the lawsuit and Champion Petfoods corrected the ‘wild-caught’ marketing claims. The company also agreed to provide more transparency regarding its fish sourcing and will be working with an animal welfare consultant to provide additional animal welfare education to employees.
FUTURE EFFORTS: We’re continuously working to improve the lives of fish. In fact, our investigative teams were just in the field documenting more of the horrors and abuses inherent in commercial fish farming. We won’t give up until these amazing animals are afforded the protections that they deserve as living, feeling beings.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: Share our fish investigation videos with your friends and family, and let them know why they should avoid eating fish. And most importantly—be sure to leave fish off your plate!
SHOW COMPASSION FOR FISH, AND TRY THESE PLANT-BASED SEAFOOD PRODUCTS INSEAD!
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