FISH TORTURE

This Minneapolis Star-Tribune story tells about the Peterson family, residents of the northern Itasca County wide spot in the road called Effie. The folks have boated 1260 sturgeon since 2003 and haven't eaten a single one. All have been released back into the water. Pretty neat, huh?

Well, when you see junior pulling the wings off of a fly or poking a frog with a sharp stick you wonder if he's going to turn into a serial killer. It ain't nice to be mean to animals. Unless they're fish. Since nobody can hear the fish scream in terror, it's OK. It's called "playing" the fish. Catch 'em and throw 'em back in so somebody else can torture them at a later date. This is also the normal practice at fishing tournaments, where perhaps thousands of fish are yanked from the water by pros and then released, many of which will not survive.

It seems odd in an era when people are worried about the confinement of laying hens and injuries to race horses and discomfort to rodeo animals that nobody seems to care about the treatment of our piscine brothers, If you're going to go to the trouble of catching a fish, why not eat it?