PHOTOS: Sexy ‘Mermaids’ in Macau Stick Up for Fish

Spotted in Macau’s Senado Square: A pair of PETA activists dressed as sexy mermaids to encourage people not to eat fish. The “mermaids” helped people understand that fish are intelligent animals who experience fear and distress when they’re hooked or netted and pulled from the water.

When it comes to feeling pain and having a will to live, fish are just like all other animals—including humans.

Scientific studies confirm that fish are sensitive individuals who feel pain, just as dogs and cats do. Fish are also smart, can use tools, and have both impressive long-term memories and sophisticated social structures.

Eating fish is not only cruel to fish but also bad for your health. Fish flesh can accumulate high levels of toxins—including insecticides, dioxin, cadmium, mercury, lead, chromium, and arsenic—at levels 9 million times more toxic than the waters that the fish live in.

Not only do people who adopt a vegan lifestyle help fish, they also protect other animals—including humans. On factory farms, animals used for food are routinely mutilated without being given any painkillers and are confined to filthy, extremely crowded spaces for their entire lives. At the slaughterhouse, animals’ throats are often cut while they’re still conscious. Animal agriculture is also a leading contributor to environmental problems such as climate change, and eating animal-derived foods raises consumers’ risk of developing diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and other conditions.