French under fire for using live puppies & kittens as shark bait

[Squirt]

Brigitte Bardot, the 1950s and 1960s film star turned animal rights campaigner, has called on the French government to halt the reported use by fishermen on the island of Reunion of live puppies and kittens as shark bait.

"It is imperative that the government does something to end this practice," she said in a letter to the minister for French overseas territories, Francois Baroin, a copy of which was given to AFP Thursday.

According to Clicanoo, a newspaper in Reunion, a French island located in the Indian Ocean, a six-month-old puppy was found last month with hooks implanted in its snout and one of its legs.

The French Society for the Protection of Animals (SPA) told the daily the dog was the victim of cruel fishermen who attract sharks by throwing puppies or kittens into the water, tied to fishing lines, and wait for the predators to swallow the thrashing animals.

"We don't see that every day, but it's not the first time, either," Marie-Annick Chantrel, the vice-president of the Reunion branch of the SPA, told Clicanoo. "We've already seen cats six or seven months old with hooks in them."

Bardot told Baroin that "unfortunately these are not isolated incidents, and the people of Reunion are the first to be horrified by this despicable barbarity which mars the image of their island."

The campaigner, who runs an animal defence association, said she had written to authorities on the island to have them put a stop to the crime.

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Hooks in the snout? Thrown in the water thrashing :ill: That is so sad. Animal cruelty happens everywhere in the world unfortunately. Do you feel it's ok to bait sharks with live animals? How do you feel about this?

[basschick]

link, please!

speaking as someone who does not eat meat and has not bought leather in over 10 years, this makes me sick to my stomach. they could easily attract sharks more humanely...

[Squirt]

Sorry dear can't believe I forgot the link! http://sg.news.yahoo.com/050825/1/3ui77.html

Really makes you think doesn't it?

In Asia you can walk the streets and order cat for a meal.. they promptly take the cat out of the cage put it on a hook and burn the hair off it.. while it's alive.. then start to cook it. Sometimes they'll put it in a vat of oil to take off the hair.. alive of course.

[Squirt]

In other countries it's acceptable common and acceptable to treat animals this way

[basschick]

i don't understand how anyone can overlook the feeling of empathy for any creature. they feel pain, they feel fear. there are more ethical and humane ways of killing them if you must do so...

[Squirt]

I totally agree. My son and I were watching our dog sleep the other day because he was having puppy dreams.. and making little noises and mannerisms.. I told Trevor "Some say that animals don't have souls. I think they do because if you didn't have a soul, you couldn't dream." He agreed. I hope I'm raising a compassionate human being that wont follow in the footsteps of those that are so cruel and unaware of the miracle of life which surrounds us everywhere on this planet.