PETA ("People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals," the organization against the killing of animals, also affectionately known in some quarters as "People for the Eating of Tasty Animals") has a new war on its hands. Forget the debate about the murder of harp seals in Canada. This time the group is focused on a small island in the Pacific, several hundred miles from Mexico, now owned by the French. Its name is Clipperton (pop. 18.)
It seems that the island is a haven for Sooty Terns, a type of seabird. The island is so isolated that shipments of fresh food only occur about once every three months. So, "We eat the wildlife. There's no choice," says longterm resident Pietro Rocha, 59. However, since according to an ancient law (still on the books) the islanders are not permitted to carry firearms, the method of killing is somewhat primitive. "We use slingshots," says Rocha. ”We have no other way to cap the bastards."
And PETA is up in arms. "They should find another way of sustaining themselves. Perhaps supplies could be flown in from Mexico. Can't they grow vegetables? Need they kill these defenseless terns with stones? Imagine the suffering," says PETA spokesperson Pamela Anderson.
But Rocha is unrepentant. "Let Pamela Anderson and her boobies (another bird species prevalent on the island) have a grand party together. This is our livelihood. We have to do this to live."
In the face of mounting campaigns against the islanders from PETA groups, sometimes in the form of actual monitoring from offshore organization boats, Rocha summed it up for the entire populace of the island:
"We will not relent. We will never surrender. We will leave no tern unstoned."
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