MIAMI (Reuters) - An animal rights group is pulling an ad campaign urging sympathy for sharks following two fatal shark attacks along the U.S. Atlantic Coast this weekend.
The campaign was to feature a billboard emblazoned ``Would You Give Your Right Arm to Know Why Sharks Attack, Could it be Revenge? Go Vegetarian, PETA.''
PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) said in a statement on Tuesday it had planned to unveil the billboard next week in Pensacola, the Florida Gulf Coast city near where a shark ripped off the arm of an 8-year-old boy last month.
The boy, Jessie Arbogast, was mauled as he played in the sea in the first of a series of well-publicized shark attacks this summer. His arm was later retrieved from the shark's mouth and reattached but the boy, who nearly died, remains in a delicate condition.
This weekend 10-year-old David Peltier was killed by a shark at a beach close to PETA's headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia. A 27-year-old man was killed swimming off North Carolina's Outer Banks barrier islands and his companion was severely injured.
PETA had also planned to stage the campaign with airplane banners to be flown over Galveston, Texas, Miami, and the Massachusetts island of Martha's Vineyard.
``Our message is that humans kill billions of fish, including sharks, each year, in the most hideous ways, and sharks aren't really to blame for doing what comes naturally, because, unlike us, they don't have choices when it comes to what to eat,'' PETA spokesman Dan Shannon said.
``But right now people would just shoot the messenger without hearing the message.''
A series of shark attacks in what has been dubbed ``The Summer of the Shark'' have alarmed the public and generated huge interest in the marine predator. But shark experts say the number of attacks is no greater than usual.
===== Kevin Dean Buffalo, NY ICQ: 8616001 http://www.yaysoft.com
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