Tell PETA to go fish

Until we're living in caves and eating only organic vegetables, PETA will never be happy.

Only such an extremist organization could see anything wrong with the opening of the fabulous new Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta this past Wednesday.

At 8 million gallons of water and more than 100,000 fish, it's the biggest in the world, and has opened to rave reviews.

"I've been to over 100 zoos and aquariums across the country and the world," said Virginia Dunbar, past president of the Atlanta Audubon Society, "but this is the most amazing thing I've seen."

The aquarium includes the largest viewing window on the continent, and is the only North American aquarium that's home to the largest fish around: the whale shark.

This is one amazing facility.

It's also a window to the mindless extremism of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which actually protested the grand occasion of the aquarium's opening. PETA derides it as nothing more than an inhumane, oversized bathtub - suggesting the fish would be "less stressed" in the ocean.

Really? Fighting for survival in a dark, uncertain, unsupervised fish-eat-fish world is stress-free? That's just brainlessness.

PETA also sells animal handlers, and their contributions to both the human and animal worlds, woefully short. The American Zoo and Aquarium Association sets standards of animal care that no PETA follower could live up to. The AZA also is in the vanguard of detecting and preventing ruthless diseases in the animal world such as West Nile virus and avian flu.

What the PETA folks really oppose is any human interaction whatsoever with the animal world. Were it otherwise, they would be supporting the humane and cutting-edge work of AZA's devoted professionals.

Simply put, the opening of the Georgia Aquarium is an unalloyed cause for celebration.