Michael Sauers

April 10, 2025

As a pre-text, please read Consumptive Wildlife Use as an Economic Tool posted on February 22, 2022 and Musings For March-April posted on April 16, 2023.

It is once again time to torture aquatic life, mostly fish, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Under the thin veneer of “sport” and “family fun” the State promotes “fishing”. Translated that means the hooking, netting, spearing and snagging of fish/turtles/frogs by means of barbed hooks, baits, traps and lures.

It is part of the consumptive use of sentient creatures to benefit several state agencies and many private businesses. Unfortunately, the lakes, rivers, brooks, creeks, streams, bogs and swamps are severely depleted of native aquatic life. This is the result of human overpopulation that results in overfishing, roads/development and pollution.

This unfortunate circumstance requires the State to propagate and stock aquatic life in the tens of millions into Pennsylvania’s waterways. This is when the State teaches speciesism to millions of children. They are taught that fish cannot feel pain and that they enjoy the battle before giving up their lives. Children are taught that is okay, even fun, to trick a fish into swallowing a barbed hook, dragging it around in the water to exhaustion, pulling it out to suffocate and the gutting it while still alive. This is a horrible thing to teach a child.

Of course, fishing is big business and the State and associated industries need to recruit. Their recruitment strategy is to brainwash them while they are young and gullible.

Speciesism, plain and simple!