Shark Ad #Fail?

Tuesday 11 October 2011 Angry surfers have ripped into an animal activists' advert depicting a severed human leg in a white shark's mouth, and attempts by the group PETA to put it up at a location in Florida, USA, where there has been a recent shark attack.

The proposed billboard by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals goes a step further than risqué ads featuring naked celebs - these are nothing on this attempt to show some flesh - severed, bleeding human flesh.

PETA can't find anywhere to put up the billboard. The reason? They want to put it up on Anna Maria Island, Florida. Why? Because a spearfisherman, Charles Wickersham, 21, was mauled by a bull shark there two weeks ago. Wickersham had to have 300 stitches to save his leg, and remains hospitalised.

"With sharks in the news, we thought it would be a good time to bring up the fact that sharks are not actually the most dangerous predators on the planet - we are," a spokesperson for PETA - Ashley Byrne - was reported to have told the New York Daily News. Her reasoning? "Americans alone kill 12 billion fish for food every year."

Head of the South African surf website SUSS, Chad Marais, was having none of it. A furious Marais sent them an email saying: "You have not only crossed a line but have put me, my family, my surfing community and my company off your cause for good. I am an AVID animal lover who has donated to my local SPCA, rescued COUNTLESS stray dogs, cats, birds, etc and have always believed in the underlying cause that is PETA ... but I am now going to STRONGLY protest your tasteless stupidity."

He goes on to say how the ad is a slap in the face to surfers, a community who are at the forefront of interaction with the ocean and one of the highest at risk of a shark attack.

"MOST of the people who are affected by shark attacks are surfers - and MOST of us (surfers) are nature loving, anti-violence, pro-animal, peace loving people - yet you come and throw something like that in our faces ... thank you very much - you will NEVER see another cent from me."

PETA responded with the usual cut and paste job: "(The ad) is not meant to offend. PETA’s purpose is to stop animal suffering, and we use all available opportunities to get powerful messages out to millions of people. This billboard will raise awareness about the horrible cruelty sharks suffer at the hands of humans. Unlike sharks, humans do not need to eat other animals to survive, making slaughtering sharks completely unnecessary. Although sharks are obligate carnivores, a shark is far more likely to be attacked by a human than a human is to be attacked by a shark."

See the rest of the exchange, which goes a bit pearshaped, here

The jury is out on the efficacy of the ad, and whether it will stop one Japanese or Chinese citizen from consuming sushi or shark fin soup, or American from wolfing down another pound of fish fingers.

As for PETA, they are 'pumped'!

http://www.peta.org/b/thepetafiles/archive/2008/07/28/payback-is-hell.aspx