Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for September 03, 2023

Safe to say, Pig has never gone fishing.

Killjoy

Apparently, Pig isn’t a “can of beer” kind of guy.

Apparently, Pig is an all empathy all the time for everyone kinda guy.

It felt cold and scaly and maybe a bit slimy. ‘Cause it’s a fish.

Mr Limpette wouldlove you Pig!

The fish didn’t have a reel good day.

Heavy, wet, and kind of slimy.

Around here, there’s a pretty long stretch of river where you’re allowed… nay encouraged to fly fish… but only with smooth hooks and you must release every fish you catch. I’ve often wondered whether the older fish tell the young ones about all the pain and trauma. It’s demonstrably true that the ones they DO catch are among the smaller fish in the river.

Like those sports movies where the team pull themselves together and achieve a dramatic “come from behind” victory, and I’m left wondering “How did the other team feel?”

I’m afraid the same thing would happen to me. I’ve no patience for fishing. Or fisher’s stories.

No pun at the end of the tale. When I was a youngster of three weeks ago this couldn’t have happened.

On a scale out of ten how would you vote Neighbor Bob?

In a strip where pigs, rats, and other animals talk, fish also probably talk and possess human like intelligence. So technically killing them would be murder.

There is a very similar old peanuts strip where a football-team has an unbelieveable comeback in the final seconds of the game. Linus is telling Charlie BRown about it enthusiatically and CB only asks “How did the other team feel?”

PETA, won’t be inviting Bob and his buddies to their Christmas party

Pig …Predator or Prey… Tis how life works . What about the fish that the big Fish ate ?

Another fish story!

It was the end of the fish’s world as it knew it, and it felt fine!!

Pig is right; there’s nothing at all sporting about some of the things people consider “sport.”

I lived in Florida for 30+ years…and went fishing exactly 3 times. Most BORING WASTE OF TIME EVER!!! If I want fish, I go to Red Lobster.

pigs are omnivorous—they’re like rats and humans, they’ll eat anything, including each other. hogs will eat fish—so why is pig concerned about the welfare of food?

Scientists have determined that fish do feel pain. Please consider trading in your hunting rifles and fishing poles for a camera. You still get the challenge and rewards of accurately shooting live moving targets. But then you also get a photo you can share, put on your wall and have forever. Plus, if you have any sense of empathy, you didn’t just end the life of an innocent creature.

Not clear from the story whether they subsequently ate the fish, threw it back after taking the photo, or had it stuffed as a trophy.

I eat fish that’s been caught for me, and if you’re going to go out and get your own, you may as well enjoy it. But if I don’t plan to eat it, I don’t see the point in the “sport”.

The fish was delicious.

In a catch-and-release scenario, I imagine the fish reuniting with his friends and saying “You’ll never BELIEVE what happened to me today!”

I thought for sure this was going to be a pun based on the amount of dialogue. I was mistaken.

Andy Capp would have never said a thing like that. At least until he finished the free pint. Dilly! Dilly! But… Pig does make a good point.

Pig is an animal himself, so he sympathizes with those animals that have been hunted, fished or bagged. That doesn’t prevent him from eating them, though.

Having sympathy for the prey isn’t appreciated by the predator.

Here’s the Peanuts strip. >

Pig always asks the wrong questions at the wrong time….and that beer tasted so good too!

I want a ham sandwich now and I don’t care about what Pig feels about that! :D

Jesus told his disciples where to fish, and they caught so many, their nets were ripping. It’s OK to fish. He fed thousands with fish and bread. It’s called food.

Ted Koppel would love this one. He is perpetually looking for the cloud when someone else finds a silver lining.

Benjamin Franklin was a vegetarian in his youth. He learned it from a book, whose author Tryon wrote:

“Seventy-five Noble dishes of Excellent Food, far exceeding those made of fish or flesh, which banquet I present to the sons of wisdom, or such as shall decline that depraved custom of eating flesh and blood.Refrain at all times such foods as cannot be procured without violence and oppression. For know, that all the inferior creatures when hurt do cry and fend forth their complaints to their maker…Be not insensible that every creature doth bear the image of the great creator according to the nature of each, and that he is the vital power in all things. Therefore, let none take pleasure to offer violence to that life, lest he awaken the fierce wrath, and bring danger to his own soul. But let mercy and compassion dwell plentifully in your hearts, that you may be comprehended in the friendly principle of God’s love and holy light. Be a friend to everything that’s good, and then everything will be a friend to thee, and cooperate for thy good and welfare.”

I know I’m in the minority, but hunting and fishing – boo hiss. No, I do not eat fish -ever. Meat is limited to bacon. No beef or other pork. Veal and lamb have never been allowed in my house. Turkey lunch meat -I do eat that. I’m allergic to chicken. I’m not a fanatic about it. I don’t protest and I don’t tell people what to do. When out with friends or my husband, I never berate them. People can eat what they want. I just don’t eat it myself.

The fish was, “Hooked on a feeling.” (Did you sing that?)

“How did the fish feel??? Slimy, of course.

Who would want to be friends with people so cruel and close minded any way?

Fish are sentient beings who deserve respect and compassion not gratuitous cruelty (i.e., abuse). Fishing isn’t sport, the fish are victims not willing participants. There’s nothing sporting about it!

Same here, just over the horizon from Cancun, but when I landed him, something very big ate the best 3/4 (sliced in two like a knife).

On the other hand, when a cat “playing” with a mouse is the subject, everyone always takes the side of the mouse. Curious.

Empathy is a vital part of dealing with the world. And it may have been catch and release. Or the fish is what’s for dinner. Either way it is polite to thank the fish, but eating it is still OK.

If i was a fisher, i would be swearing like a sailor because i can’t get any fish

Pig doesn’t adjust well to the vagaries of social situations….