Words matter, and as our understanding of social justice evolves, our language evolves along with it. Here’s how to remove speciesism from your daily conversations. pic.twitter.com/o67EbBA7H4
— PETA (@peta) December 4, 2018
Animal activist Michael Leaming listens to his lawyer Peri Sedigh argue for his defense in Pinellas County court Friday, Nov. 16, 2018. Last year Leaming and members of the group Direct Action Everywhere, protested inside a Pinellas Park Chick-fil-A before confronting a family fishing at Crescent Lake in St. Petersburg. The fisherman, Robert Hope, had just caught a tilapia when Leaming was filmed yelling at him and throwing the fish back into the lake. He was charged with ‘interfering with lawful taking of game or fish,’ but that was changed the day before the trial to petit theft, both a second degree misdemeanor.
CLEARWATER — A dying fish was flopping on a hot deck. An animal activist called throwing it back in the water an act of kindness. The state called it theft.
The value of St. Petersburg’s most internet famous flying fish? About $6.
Now, Michael Leaming will have to pay a $500 fine and court costs after a judge found him guilty of depriving Robert Hope of his dinner by launching a tilapia into Crescent Lake in July 2017.
Continue reading “Activist threw a fisherman’s catch back into the lake. Now, he has to pay.”