PETA sign fails to hook Utahns
But an image of a dog with a fishhook through its lip has crossed the line for some outdoor advertisers.
After trying for six months to post an anti-fishing billboard in the Salt Lake area, PETA has "exhausted all options." Six companies with billboards in the area have all rejected the design, which says: "If you wouldn't do this to a dog, why do it to a fish?"
"It's just so disappointing because people all over the country need to see this message. But especially in a place where there are a lot of fishers," PETA's fish empathy project manager, Karin Robertson, said in reference to Utah's heavy fishing population. Because of the popularity of the sport in the state, Salt Lake City was a coveted spot for PETA to place one of the billboards.
"Fish are intelligent animals. They are just as intelligent as the dogs and cats who share our homes, and they feel pain in the same way. It's just such a gruesome, cruel way to treat animals."
The billboard, advertising the Web site FishingHurts.com, was placed in fishing hot spots all over the nation this summer, including various cities in Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Kansas and Tennessee. Although Robertson said some billboard companies in other states rejected the design and "a lot of people" got calls about the gruesome, digitally created image, trying to get the billboards approved in Salt Lake City was a unique situation because of the time spent "begging and pleading" and the number of companies that PETA contacted.
Local billboard company Freeway Advertising rejected the billboard because of a company policy that says that if owners feel the design would offend the general public, it's rejected.
"They (PETA) call us all the time and want to put stuff up," said co-owner Paul Newbold. The company has rejected and accepted previous designs from the animal rights group. But with the anti-fishing campaign, "They're trying to make a stir, and I told them I don't need the headaches. I don't need people calling me saying, 'Your billboard offends me.' "
Freeway Advertising posted PETA's controversial vegetarian billboard last year. Next to an image of God, it quoted scripture from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The advertisement didn't generate any calls. But Newbold feared an anti-fishing billboard would.
"I just knew we'd have a lot of sportsmen calling. I just didn't want to deal with it," he said, adding that the delivery of the message is a little harsh. "I like to fish. I'm a sportsman. But I don't waste it. We use them and filet them."
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