10/24/2005: Dog becomes shark bait

[Oafed]

From July 1998 through the end of 2004, PETA killed over 12,400 dogs, cats, and other "companion animals" -- at its Norfolk, Virginia headquarters. That's more than five defenseless animals every day. Not counting the dogs and cats PETA spayed and neutered, the group put to death over 85 percent of the animals it took in during 2003 alone. And its angel-of-death pattern shows no sign of changing.

Please tell me how PETA provides a counterbalance?

....

On the other side - what about the sharks? What makes dogs more worthy of not having a hook in its mouth? We've been hooking sharks for years and no one seems to care.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Please tell me how PETA provides a counterbalance?

By providing a high profile bad example. You have to do as they say, not as they do.

I'm having a hard time with that picture, after the initial revulsion.
There's no blood.
There's no tear around the hook.
It wouldn't work. If you tried to pull a dog that size through the water that hook would rip out quickly.

Something's fishy(no pun) here.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

I'm having a hard time with that picture, after the initial revulsion.
There's no blood.
There's no tear around the hook.
It wouldn't work. If you tried to pull a dog that size through the water that hook would rip out quickly.

Something's fishy(no pun) here.

I assumed that the hook went through more than just the lip. That it went through the roof of the mouth and above the teeth. Hard to tell, but now that I look more closely, it does look like it just goes through the lip. Maybe these fishermen are incompetent as well as cruel.

[xoxoxoBruce]

*The hook would be inserted clean and obviously no tension was applied since

You may be right but it's hard to believe the dog didn't try to paw or shake it loose. Especially after escaping his tormentors.
I believe the story, I'm just having a tough time with this picture.

[Sundae]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

You may be right but it's hard to believe the dog didn't try to paw or shake it loose. Especially after escaping his tormentors.
I believe the story, I'm just having a tough time with this picture.

Same here - there seems to be a reasonable amount of proof that animals we consider pets are being used as bait, but the pic did raise questions in my mind.

Are sharks usually caught with live bait? (my experience of catching them begins & ends with Jaws). If so, how were the islanders catching them before the dog population exploded? Is it really that easy to catch and hook feral dogs? (I appreciate that the one in the pic is described as a pet, but an island population that has no real love of dogs surely can't have that many of them to dognap).

It does mention that the animals are usually hooked in more than one place - perhaps the paws take the brunt of it?

[tang]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

I'm having a hard time with that picture, after the initial revulsion.
There's no blood.
There's no tear around the hook.
It wouldn't work. If you tried to pull a dog that size through the water that hook would rip out quickly.

I agree. Plus that looks like an ineffective way to bait your hook. If you did get a strike, I don't think you'd pull in a shark. I think you would just pull in the head of a dog.

Snopes seems undecided...
www.snopes.com