In 2000 the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) warned that it planned to sabotage the bass fishing tournament in East Texas's Lake Palestine by releasing tranquilizers into the lake before the tournament. Their announcement stated that "this year, the fish will be napping, not nibbling." State officials took the threat seriously and stationed rangers around the lake in order to stop any tranquilizer-toting PETA activists from drugging the fish, and numerous newspapers reported the threat. Eventually PETA admitted that it had been joking.
Comments
Listed in chronological order. Newest comments at the end.

---

Page 1 of 1 pages

---

Silly PETA. Of course people believed this. How is it more far-fetched than most of the things PETA actually does? I mean, who would expect PETA to joke about the ruthless slaughter of innocent bass for entertainment?
Posted by Evan  in  Canada  on  Tue May 11, 2004  at  06:30 AM

---

uuh... PETA was actually really smart with this plan, they introduced the threat, gaining publicity for thier cause, and then were able to say they were joking when it became impossible for them to carry out thier threat, pretty good plan, (i think they should have actually done this...)
Posted by Ginny  in  England  on  Thu Jun 03, 2004  at  05:31 AM

---

Slaughter of innocent bass? Dude, bass tournaments are catch-and-release.
Posted by Shine  on  Mon Apr 04, 2005  at  01:44 PM

---

Holy cow, PETA has a sense of humor? Who knew?
Posted by FoolmeOnce  on  Wed Apr 06, 2005  at  06:27 PM

---

Lol I find it so funny on how opinionated some people like you are about EVERYTHING. I mean, some things just get left unsaid. I live in America but that doesn't mean I'm an imbicile, some people no matter what country are like that. I understand if you're affended but, Honey, thats just the way it is. not EVERYONE will side with you even if you're all from the same country. And I apologize if you haven't anything to do with this. But like I said, some things just go left unsaid. And it wouldn't hurt to be less rude to the AMERICANS your trash-talking. I mean, oh nevermind....Some things are best left unsaid.
Posted by Trish  on  Tue Mar 21, 2006  at  02:12 PM

---

Where the hell did that come from?
Posted by Devin  on  Mon Apr 03, 2006  at  12:19 PM

---

Wow, and she even managed to misspell 'offended'. This is almost as funny as the April Fool's prank, if it wasn't a bit sad.
Posted by Dutchie  on  Mon Apr 03, 2006  at  02:19 PM

---

I have a strong feeling it wasn't intended to be an april fool's joke. PETA has lots of sick members that have no qualms doing whatever they want as long as they feel they are helping animals. Finding out their plans weren't going to work, they went with it being a "joke"
Posted by Koji  on  Tue Apr 04, 2006  at  10:01 AM

---

Whu?? That's genius... That could only be bettered by the Young Socialists sending themselves up....
Posted by Sarah  in  Liverpool, UK  on  Sat Apr 22, 2006  at  04:34 PM

---

Too bad PETA has gone so far. I joined them when I was a kid--like middle school or so. Then, they started going crazy and I didn't feel comfortable being associated with them anymore. Better to support the humane society or your local no kill shelter or something. Not all animal lovers are crazy, you know!
Posted by Heather  in  USA  on  Thu May 11, 2006  at  06:10 AM

---

Heather i agree with u 100% :D
Posted by OKOCO  in  CA  on  Thu Aug 10, 2006  at  05:18 PM

---

I agree with Koji.
Posted by PD  on  Sat Sep 09, 2006  at  01:31 PM

---

I don't think PETA actually intended to drug the fish because it would be very expensive and impossible to regulate the dosage due to water currents. I do however think they meant it to be taken as a credible threat. I wouldn't put anything past them but if they actually had that much tranquiler at their disposal, I'm sure they'd be darting the humans instead.
Posted by Kuji  in  AK  on  Sat Mar 31, 2007  at  06:57 PM

---

P.E.T.A. - People Eating Tasty Animals
Posted by ne  in  1122 Boogie Boogie Avenue  on  Sat Mar 31, 2007  at  11:57 PM

---

So, PETA was joking. How, exactly, did they expect anyone to guess? When I hear something crazy come from PETA, there isn't much reason to doubt it.
Posted by Dano  on  Sun Apr 01, 2007  at  03:22 PM

---

Idiots.... I realized it was fake before I finished reading. Anesthetics don't work on fish. The precision of dosage is so great that variability in it's absorbtion would result in either dead fish or unaffected fish.
Posted by marhawkman  on  Mon Aug 06, 2007  at  02:51 PM

---

Some people may still not get it.

PETA with a sense of responsibility for anything beyond their own emotions at the moment - that was the hoax,
and not necessarily the drugged fish part.


"What We Are Doing To The Earth: Human reproduction is global genocide."
- from a PETA pamphlet with gruesome, "PG-21 level" graphic illustrations of dead baby animals, given to my 10 YEAR-OLD CHILD!!!!!
Posted by Jane  on  Mon Dec 24, 2007  at  10:53 AM

---

Actually, one can anaesthetize fish, and do so using good old fashioned clove oil. One fine day when I was siphoning water out of an aquarium, one of the fish escaped from my improvised pen at the other end of the tank. It was a black moor goldfish (dunno why they aren't called blackfish) with rather bulbous eyes. It must have strayed too close to the pipe I was using and I was paying attention to the other end of the pipe where the water was coming out. I feel this little jerk on the pipe and see this black thing shoot down the pipe and out the other end. I quickly turn back to the tank and there's this poor fish swimming around in circles with one of its eyeballs missing! The little fellow seemed happy enough but I was pretty grossed out. Off I goes to the usenet (this was before the world wide wait) and alt.aquarium.trauma or something and post a message - help! Very quickly I got a reply to the effect that this sort of thing happens all the time and the eye socket will heal all by itself but to prevent infection its best to pack the socket with some antibiotic cream such as Garamycin. So, off I toddle to the chemists and return with the Garamycin. I scoops the injured fellow out of the tank so I can do my Florence Nightingale bit and of course the fish starts flapping around like a mad thing. Try as I might, the fish is both too small and too slippery for me to hold it still with one hand whilst I pack the bloody socket with the antibbiotic. Giving up, back I goes to usenet and asks about anaesthetizing fish. Same helpful chap as before says try a couple of drops of clove oil in a bowl of water containing the patient. Back I goes to the chemists and gets me some clove oil - this was in Thailand and it is sold there as a toothache remedy. Remember the movie Marathon Man? After Dustin Hoffman gets his tooth drilled by the evil Laurence Olivier ("Is it safe, is it safe, is it safe?" he soothes the pain with oil of cloves. But I digress, back to my piscatorial patient. Clove oil worked like a charm! Two drops had the little chap out like a light in seconds, I got the cream in and he revived in a few minutes back in the main tank. Fish first aid! The eye socket looked a darn sight less gross with the cream in and the fish eventually made a full recovery until the cat got him some months later. Still, he probably never saw it coming.
Posted by Gavin  in  India  on  Tue Apr 01, 2008  at  03:23 AM

---

PETA sucks!
Posted by chuck norris  on  Tue Apr 01, 2008  at  09:16 AM

---

but what about all the dead dogs and cats in the dumspter and their walk-in freezer!
Posted by Fanque  on  Tue Apr 01, 2008  at  04:21 PM

---

Page 1 of 1 pages

---

Name:

Email (if you want to be notified of responses):

Location:

URL:

Note: To prove that you're a human being, not an automated spam bot, you've got to type in the word you see below. If you register as a member of the site you won't have to do this. Once registered, you'll then also need to login. If you're seeing this notice, and you've already registered, that means you haven't logged in. As a member you also won't have to enter your personal info every time you leave a comment.

Submit the word you see below:

Smileys

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?