A groundbreaking court decision in Argentina is making waves around the world—and PETA is making sure millions more people hear about it.

After an Argentine court ruled that two rescued goldfish are sentient beings with rights (not property), PETA erected a bold billboard in Times Square declaring: “Argentina Court Rules Fish Have Rights! Don’t Eat ‘Em.”

The landmark ruling reflects what scientists—and anyone who has ever really paid attention to fish—have known for years: Fish are sensitive individuals who can experience pain, fear, and stress. They value their own lives, yet humans catch, farm, and kill trillions of fish every year.

PETA’s new billboard challenges everyone who sees it to think differently about the animals on their plates. If fish have rights and deserve protection from cruelty, the next logical step is to leave them off your fork.

What Happened to Fede and Magui?

Fede and Magui didn’t ask to become legal trailblazers. They just needed someone to notice they were suffering.

The two goldfish spent their days in a tiny glass display tank outside a sushi restaurant in Buenos Aires. The cramped enclosure exposed them to blazing sun, constant street noise, and people who regularly tapped on the glass. According to the animal advocacy group Empty Cages (Jaulas Vacías), the stressful conditions caused the fish to lose scales and showed clear signs of neglect.

Empty Cages filed a complaint under Argentina’s animal cruelty law, arguing that Fede and Magui deserved better. The court agreed. It ordered the fish removed from the display and took the extraordinary step of recognizing them as sentient beings with rights.

Today, Fede and Magui live in a spacious 660-gallon aquarium under the care of an aquatic specialist. More importantly, their case established a powerful precedent: Fish deserve protection.

Fish Are Smart, Social, and Sensitive

Fish learn from one another, recognize familiar individuals, solve problems, and remember what they’ve learned. Some even use tools, cooperate to accomplish tasks, and communicate with one another in complex ways. Scientists have documented these abilities in species ranging from tiny reef fish to salmon and carp.

Like all animals, fish feel pain, fear, and stress. They avoid situations that have hurt them before, seek safety when they sense danger, and experience physiological changes when they’re frightened. In other words, they don’t simply react—they experience the world around them.

Yet humans kill trillions of fish every year for food—more than any other group of vertebrate animals. Whether they’re hauled from the ocean in massive nets or crowded together on fish farms, they suffer from injuries, fear, painful decompression, suffocation, and prolonged deaths that would horrify most people if they happened to dogs or cats.

Argentina’s landmark ruling reflects what compassion and science have pointed to all along: Fish are someone, not something. The best way to respect their lives is simple—leave them off your plate.

PETA Latino Has Championed Animals in Argentina for Years

PETA’s new Times Square billboard is just the latest in our efforts to encourage compassion for animals in Argentina and beyond.

For years, PETA Latino has challenged speciesism across Latin America with bold campaigns that encourage people to see animals as individuals—not food. After public outrage erupted over a woman who allegedly tried to have her dog slaughtered for meat, PETA Latino proposed a billboard asking a simple question: “If you wouldn’t eat your dog, why eat a cow?” During devastating wildfires that blanketed South America with smoke, another campaign reminded the public that animal agriculture fuels climate catastrophe and urged everyone to choose vegan foods.

PETA Latino has also partnered with Argentine celebrities, participated in vegan festivals and public demonstrations in Buenos Aires, and created compelling campaigns that encourage people to see chickens, cows, fish, and other animals as unique individuals.

Whether the message appears on a billboard in Buenos Aires or in the heart of Times Square, the goal remains the same: Help more people recognize that every animal is someone with a life that matters.

The Best Way to Respect Fish? Leave Them Off Your Plate.

Every time you choose a delicious vegan meal instead of fish, you help spare thinking, feeling individuals from suffering. As PETA’s Times Square billboard reminds us, “Fish Have Rights! Don’t Eat ‘Em.”

Ready to make a difference for fish and all other animals? Order PETA’s free vegan starter kit today and discover just how easy—and delicious—it is to leave animals off your plate.

The post Argentina Court Rules That Fish Have Rights—and PETA Takes the Message to Times Square appeared first on PETA.