I am writing in regards to the article published Aug. 27 "PETA Seeks End to University Lake Fishing."
Unfortunately, it appears that the left-wing People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is misinformed on several issues and would be better off devoting its time elsewhere. Banning fishing is eradicating a national pastime shared every day by fathers and their sons and daughters, by blue- and white-collared workers on their days off, by the less-fortunate trying to save a couple bucks on dinner and of course the students who wish to escape Chapel Hill to enjoy the serenity of University Lake.
Further, Mr. Shannon, PETA's fishing coordinator, asserts that fishing promotes the use of boats that in turn contributes to the destruction of the environment.
Has Mr. Shannon ever been to University Lake? If so, he surely would have noticed that the vast majority of the boats there are crew skulls, paddle-boats, flat-bottomed boats with battery-operated trolling motors, and of course those infamously destructive canoes. Lastly, Mr. Shannon and his organization need to conduct further research in the neuroanatomy of fish. While PETA claims that fish feel "pain," pain is simply a projection we as humans have tendencies to put on other people and organisms.
Philosophically, we will never know how fish with their minimal cognition experience the human notion of pain. Scientifically, as I understand it, pain in humans is processed in the cerebrum -- a part of the brain fish lack. Because fish do not possess this part of the brain, it is essential to recognize that "pain" is a completely different experience for fish than for humans. It is imperative that Mr. Shannon and his local PETA chapter conduct further research before launching what will indubitably be a senseless and hopefully futile campaign to end one of our country's great pastimes.
Lock Taylor
Senior, Comparative Literature
The length rule was waived.
