Peta could care less about victims of sharks

Animal rights group PETA doesn't have much sympathy for the spear fisherman attacked by a shark this weekend. Their publicity-stunt plan: billboards and bus-bench signs on Anna Maria Island showing a shark biting a human leg with the slogan, "Payback is Hell. Go Vegan."

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals abandoned plans for similar ads in 2001 after a series of shark attacks on the East Coast.

Longboat Key resident Charles Wickersham, 21, was spearfishing in the Gulf of Mexico off Anna Maria Island on Saturday when a bull shark bit his leg, tearing back enough flesh to expose his thigh bone. He had surgery Monday and his family expects he will return home in about 10 days, said his sister, Kristi Wickersham.
"We're glad that Mr. Wickersham is going to be OK," said PETA spokeswoman Ashley Byrne. "But we do hope that after this painful and frightening experience he will consider the terror and pain fish feel when they are impaled and suffocated to death. Maybe he will consider taking up another pastime."
The Wickershams could not be reached Tuesday.
PETA does take things to the extremes sometimes! They just need to back it up a little on their advertising tactics.