Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
PETA ad with a fishhooked dog shocked drivers, company
By KEVIN MORAN
GALVESTON - An anti-fishing sign on Interstate 45 that shows a dog with a fishhook through its bloody lip will be taken down because of numerous complaints, a nationwide sign company decided Monday.
Along with the picture, the billboard, paid for by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, bears the question:
"If you wouldn't do this to a dog, why do it to a fish?"
The billboard went up Aug. 10. It is the first in a national campaign to emphasize the animal advocacy group's contention that fishers inflict torturous injuries and deaths on their catches, PETA spokesman William Rivas-Rivas said Monday.
Pat Murray, executive director of the 50,000-member recreational fishing group Coastal Conservation Association Texas, called the billboard "extremist" and said he's glad it will be removed.
"It's a gross mischaracterization of the sport and the pastime," said Murray, adding that he saw the sign, near the intersection of I-45 and Texas 146, on Sunday. "We're not dog fishing."
The billboard's owner, advertising giant Viacom Outdoor, informed PETA's Norfolk, Va., headquarters Monday that Viacom would exercise its contractual right to remove the sign because of complaints.
Viacom spokesman Jeremy Murphy said he was unable to provide the exact number of complaints the company received before deciding to remove the sign.
But in an e-mail announcing the decision to PETA, Viacom employee Cecilia Yu said the company received "numerous complaints from the community."
Rivas-Rivas said PETA will not fight the billboard's removal but plans to place the same advertisement in the New Orleans and Columbus, Ohio, areas, among others.
