Prior to the pandemic, every year Toronto’s Scadding Court Community Centre tormented intelligent, resourceful animals by filling its pool with fish and letting people hook and net them during its “Gone Fishin’” event. Despite PETA’s repeated attempts to get the facility to end this cruel spectacle—including suggesting fun family event ideas that inform the community about fish without harming them—the management has not listened and has continued to hold this weeklong event. Let’s make sure this tradition doesn’t continue.
© Jo- Anne McArthur/ We Animals
Science has shown that fish experience fear and feel pain. When they're hooked through their sensitive mouths and yanked from the water, they thrash and twist in a desperate attempt to free themselves. Their gills often collapse, and their swim bladders can rupture from the drastic change in pressure before they slowly suffocate.
Fish communicate, think, and make tools, and they live in large hierarchical societies or smaller family units. They belong in their native waters, not a swimming pool in Toronto.
© Jo- Anne McArthur/ We Animals
Please urge the Scadding Court Community Centre's executive director, Kevin Lee, to spare fish the pain and suffering of being impaled and netted by ending the facility's cruel "Gone Fishin'" event.