Dogs and cats eat sharks
That many humans eat sharks without even knowing it, this has been true for a long time! After all, Divers for Sharks and so many other entities are already hoarse from saying that in Portuguese Cação is the same thing as shark, in English Fish steak is Shark and in Spanish Bolilo is Tiburon.
And why don’t the markets just call it a shark right away? Because they wouldn’t sell as much. That’s right, they change the name to deceive you, so that you can continue with industrial fishing impacting the oceans and continue killing endangered animals.
But what if I ask if your dog or cat eats shark meat? Even more endangered species?! Yes, it is true, and the worst is that the opposite is also happening: sharks eating dogs. And alive on top of that.
An article published in Newsweek shows studies from Yale-NUS College proving that cat and dog foods have been shown to contain meat from sharks, including endangered sharks.
The article reads: “Scientists have identified meat from endangered sharks in a study of dog and cat food that can be fed to domestic animals without owners being aware of what it contains.
A DNA barcode study by scientists at Yale-NUS College in Singapore found that about a third of sequenced pet food samples contained shark DNA, including from species deemed “vulnerable”.
The study also found that the products did not make it clear that the shark was included, describing the shark-based ingredient using terms such as “whitefish” or “oceanic fish”.
Blue, Silk and White tips
The most commonly identified shark that scientists found was the blue shark, which has a “near threatened” conservation status due to overfishing, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. Two other most frequently identified species are considered “vulnerable” by the IUCN – the silky shark and the whitetip reef shark.
For me this information was new, but not at all impressive, even to be honest, unfortunately within the current logic of the industry uncommitted to nature, ecology and sustainability.
Shark eats dog too
What I already knew is that live dogs being used as bait for shark fishing on the French island, as shown in the article published by UFPA here. https://caep-ufpa.blogspot.com/2012/12/caes-usados-como-isca-para-tubarao-em.html
The small volcanic island Réunion located off the east coast of Africa has already been spotted in photos and videos using live dogs to fish for sharks. After the hooks are attached to the head or paws of the dogs, the animal is attached to a buoy and released into the sea, usually overnight and the fishermen return the next day to see if they have managed to catch any sharks.
It is impressive that in the year we are still living, in the century we are in, we still see barbarism like these happening. It is against logic, science, nature, ethics and even against most of what the citizens of the world think. Why does this keep happening then? Unfortunately, the answer is simple and already known to most: evil happens not because evil people are many, on the contrary, they are a minority. It happens because the vast majority of good people do nothing.
If you no longer want to be part of this gigantic group of passive people in the world but you don’t know how, join Divers for Sharks and help us to hold the 2nd Divers for Sharks Week in Brazil. Speak here and make a difference: contato@diversforsharks.com.br.
