A note to PETA: Save kids, not fish

I got in the mail the other day a picture of what is now a billboard put up by PETA or the group known as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

The picture is that of a dog with a fishhook tugging on its upper lip, with the words, "If you wouldn't do this to a dog, why do this to a fish?"

Obviously the picture had been doctored, even though there is no disclaimer, like: "The picture you see is not real."

But then I have to ask, why would a group like PETA move to support a natural born killer. A vicious predator that would, without hesitation, eat its own children.

Fish are not the sad-eyed pets that curl up at your feet, lick your hand and give tender love and care to their offspring as PETA would have onlookers believe.

Dogs and fish are as different as salt and pepper. Dogs don't eat their young. Fish do. Dogs are not cannibals. Fish are. They eat other fish. And, if dinner happens to be an offspring, a young minnow they gave birth to, it matters none. Dinner.

The only fish most people ever see are swimming lazily in aquariums. Want to see what fish really do? Watch 'em suck in unsuspecting cousins on Animals World.

Dogs, now, can be seen daily playing in the parks, pulling kids holding a leash and chasing after a Frisbee. Never seen a child walking a fish or a fish that could catch a Frisbee.

Dogs return affection. Fish blow bubbles and couldn't identify the person who feeds and freshens up their water in a group of one.

Baby fish live in absolute terror of bigger fish, even their own parents, not fishermen's lures. Natural instincts tell fish to swim as fast as they can away from any fish larger than they are. They're constantly looking back over their dorsal fins to see who might be looking at them as a meal.

Millions more fish are eaten on any given day, in most cases alive, than are ever hooked by fishermen. At least when a fish is hooked it's a quick end.

It's a fact that fishermen spend millions of dollars and millions of hours buying, building and then installing structures in lakes and reservoirs for young fish to hide. A common practice by fishermen here in Utah is to lash old Christmas trees together with cables and then drop them in the shallows to make safe havens for little fish.

Bet PETA hasn't spent a dime trying to protect smaller fish from predators.

Now there's a cause for PETA. How about pushing for the ethical and humane treatment of fish by other fish?