FLORENCE, Ala. — The First Assembly of God Church has agreed to discontinue its practice of swallowing live goldfish as part of its Fear Factor ministry.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has asked for a ban on the practice.
Pastor Greg Woodall replied to PETA’s request in a letter.
“I do appreciate your concern and just wanted to let you know that this will never happen again,” Woodall wrote. “My views are a reflection of yours. We love God’s creatures and would never want to show them harm.”
As part of the Fear Factor ministry at the church, teenage participants were asked to swallow live goldfish. No one reportedly became ill during the goldfish phase of the program that concludes this week.
Well, the goldfish undoubtedly became quite ill…. :-)
By the way, just how much courage is it supposed to take to swallow a goldfish anyway?
(Apparently it’s o.k. to be afraid of PETA.)
In the interest of philosophical balance, I think every mention of PETA – People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals – should be balanced with a mention of PETA – People for the Eating of Tasty Animals. See http://mtd.com/tasty/ for a nice bit of balanced reading (think Fox news of the meat world).
And don’t forget Pweeta (people who enjoy eating tasty animals) http://www.ooze.com/pweeta/