Shark Finning Protest Suggests Industry's Horrific Animal Treatment (GRAPHIC CONTENT)

Performance artist Alice Newstead recently showed her support for ending the practice of shark finning in a unique way.

Shark finning, which involves killing sharks by slicing off their fins, is conducted in large part to provide the main ingredient for shark fin soup, considered by some to be a Chinese delicacy. A bill banning shark fins is currently in the California State Assembly.

WARNING: Graphic photos below.

Newstead chose to protest the brutality of shark finning with a gruesome act that few would fail to notice. In a LUSH Cosmetics store in San Francisco, she was hung by two hooks -- the same hooks that are used in shark fishing.

The Associated Press reports that the proposed ban on shark fins has raised some controversy in San Francisco, whose population is nearly one-third Asian. Some Chinese-Americans in California say shark fin soup, which can sell for up $80 per bowl, is a "cherished cultural tradition."

A number of celebrities have endorsed the ban, including basketball player Yao Ming and actress Bo Derek.

Although California's bill banning shark fins does not ban shark meat, The Food Network recently took a stand against shark meat and discontinued any recipes featuring shark meat on its shows and website.

Actor and HuffPost blogger Ian Somerhalder says, "Sharks are beautiful creatures that need our help if they are to survive."

Last year, a report from Oceana explained that "up to 73 million sharks are killed each year to satisfy the demand of the international shark fin market."

The organization reports:

During the finning process, a shark is hauled up on deck and its fins are sliced off. The shark -- sometimes still alive -- is thrown back into the water to bleed to death. This brutal practice is also incredibly wasteful; shark finning only utilizes one to five percent of the shark’s body weight, removing an essential food source from many communities.

Check out photos from the protest:

1 of 15

1 of 16

First Slide

Previous Slide

@

'Missoula' New Puma Cub Makes Debut at Berlin Zoo

April Britt, Massachusetts Woman, Finds Baby Bird With 2 Heads, 3 Beaks

Japan Tsunami Debris: Bones Expected To Wash Ashore, Oceanographer Says

gadgets/slideshows/223989/slide_223989_930216_small.jpg

Tornado In France: F1 Storm Touches Down South Of Toulouse (VIDEOS)

State Of The Air 2012: American Lung Association Reports Improvements, Challenges

Green Festival 2012: Fostering Community And Sustainability In New York City And Beyond

comments(145)

Total comments: 145 | Post a Comment

1 of 16

This Picture

Rank #2  |  Average: 4

Not For Me Unbelievable

• 
  1
• 
  2
• 
  3
• 
  4
• 
  5
• 
  6
• 
  7
• 
  8
• 
  9
• 
  10

Shark Finning Protest

loading...

Shark Finning Protest

UserName

 | Become a fan

Picked These as the Top 5 Slides in the Slideshow

loading...

Top User Slides

← Prev|Next →

 | Become a fan

Picked These as the Top 5 Slides in the Slideshow

loading...

Users who voted on this slide

← Prev|Next →

loading...

--

Comments

[John Di Saia]

04:02 PM on 10/11/2011

That is one whacked woman.

[Glowbeanie]

08:16 PM on 09/13/2011

Alice Newstead, is what heroines are made of...and you would you be, if you help stop people fro eating shark fin soup!! I know to millions, it may be a tradition, but so was genital mutilation. Ban all shark fin soup eating in America...Norther And Southern, Americas, alike.

[allerleirauh]

11:31 PM on 09/05/2011

This seems a little cloistered, ignoring the fact that most shark's fins are eaten in China where they couldn't give less of a flip what some Americans think about them.

[Glowbeanie]

08:22 PM on 09/13/2011

You've got to start somewhere...China is another story altogether. But possibly, we in North America, can do as much as possble to end it here...even in good ol' SF, home of millions of Chinese persons.

[IndependentAndProud]

05:33 PM on 09/04/2011

Being a tradition in a given culture is no defense for the continuation of something as horrible.as shark finning. Slavery could be defended as cultural, as could feeding people to the lions, mutilation of young girls' genitals, stoning infidels to death, etc, etc, etc.

If it's wrong, it's wrong. Shark finning is wrong.

[James Andrade]

12:16 AM on 09/13/2011

amen!

[Glowbeanie]

08:25 PM on 09/13/2011

It is more wrong than ever now...if they are killing off the sharks, simply to eat shark fin soup. More than tratdition, it is commerce, and that should be easier to stop.

[amaboss52]

05:17 PM on 09/02/2011

People who fin should have their toes cut off!

[Glowbeanie]

08:27 PM on 09/13/2011

Yes, and make them eat them...just as long as you're not a toe or foot fetisher?

[Max Shaw]

01:06 PM on 08/29/2011

A lot of cosmetics actually use sharks in their products too...I wonder if she knows that...

[Glowbeanie]

08:28 PM on 09/13/2011

Cosmetic corporations, have alot to answer for, that's for sure.

[katejarvis14]

08:13 PM on 08/28/2011

Absolutely disgusting. How can any natural, functioning human being not only do this barbaric act but support it, saying it's "tradition?" There are reasons people let go of traditions because as we develop and evolve we come to realize certain things are just not right. Morality should kick in, and yet for some it still doesn't. I am a vegetarian because of animal rights so I'm sort of opposed to all meat, but throwing the poor shark back into the ocean to suffer a cruel, excruciating death? Inhuman and unbelievable.

[amaboss52]

05:17 PM on 09/02/2011

Humans are inhuman and unbelievable. Look what they do to their own kids!

[katejarvis14]

07:39 PM on 09/02/2011

I know right? Jeez louise...It's pretty crazy-scary, huh? Some people, I swear...

[James Andrade]

12:18 AM on 09/13/2011

Well said.....

[HowthCastle]

07:00 PM on 08/28/2011

Is she sort of like the crazy guy in "The Cell"?

[Glowbeanie]

08:30 PM on 09/13/2011

Alice is the real deal, bud.

[HowthCastle]

06:55 PM on 08/28/2011

Once binding the feet of little girls was a "cherished cultural tradition."
Foot binding was a brutal assault, lasting for years, intended to deliberately cripple a woman, just to prove that her family was affluent enough that they didn't need the fruits of her labor.

[amaboss52]

05:18 PM on 09/02/2011

Once the foot is bound, the wrappings can never be taken off, the woman never walks correctly the rest of her life. It was a sickening, brutal way to keep women in line.

[Glowbeanie]

08:32 PM on 09/13/2011

Yes, I believe that when evolution kicked in...too bad, Gov. Rick Perry, wants to drag Americans on the Left, to those traditions, if he can win the elections. Mercy!

[anothervoter]

03:43 PM on 08/28/2011

Shark finning is barbaric and should be banned worldwide.

[Glowbeanie]

08:33 PM on 09/13/2011

Yes! Stop the fishermen and companies that sell those shark fins to restaurants, and boycott the palces and people that continue to et them in the Western Hemisphere.

[ashabot]

01:29 PM on 08/28/2011

A "cherished cultural tradition"? What culture? Shark fin soup is part of the barbaric "culture" of cruelty, stupidity and wastefulness. If it is a "cultural" it represents that culture's senility.

[Glowbeanie]

08:35 PM on 09/13/2011

So much for culture, they would also sacrifice virgens...what a waste of those virgens.

[Reikoku Jaken]

10:19 PM on 08/27/2011

Funny thing, some time ago, far far away in Sparta, leaving your malformed children was also considered a "cherished cultural tradition."

A few decades ago, in the United States, another "cherished cultural tradition" involved dousing Black men, women, and any people willing to fight for their civil rights, with gasoline - and then lighting them on fire.

Tough luck on "cherished cultural traditions" I guess. NI HAO.

[HowthCastle]

06:57 PM on 08/28/2011

Can you document any of this about gasoline attacks?

[amaboss52]

05:20 PM on 09/02/2011

gasoline or not, too many innocents were lynched for fun, disgusting!

[Glowbeanie]

08:39 PM on 09/13/2011

Reikoku Jaken, that is why we have evolved and elected a Bi-racial, President. What has China done, lately, to end their cruelty to their own people, and the one child(boys only) policy? Kinda Gay, with not enough girls around...not including the Lesbians in China. Less females, for so many males?

[Reikoku Jaken]

12:17 AM on 09/14/2011

Please tell me you were high on something other than life while typing this asinine response.

[JimsObie]

12:58 PM on 08/27/2011

I used to work with a young man that was into this kind of self torture. He said after a while you don't feel the pain of the hooks. Not sure if I buy into that but I would assume after many times maybe there would be scarr tissue built up and maybe that wouldn't hurt as much. But Dear Alice find a better way to help the sharks. This can only mess up your body by the time you are an old woman

[Glowbeanie]

08:40 PM on 09/13/2011

You got to love her passion.

[20thCentury Man]

12:50 PM on 08/27/2011

Wow ! She is beautiful.

[amaboss52]

05:21 PM on 09/02/2011

Especially her soul!

[Glowbeanie]

08:41 PM on 09/13/2011

Lasting beauty, comes from within...like so many beautiful people in the inside, fighting to end cruelty to all animals.

[Squidwoman]

11:25 AM on 08/27/2011

She is NOT crazy. She knows EXACTLY what she is doing, what she wants to achieve, and she has the ability to do it. Just as compassionate people chain themselves to trees and are called "tree huggers" because they see the broader picture of WHY we need trees to live, this woman is compassionate about the 73 million sharks killed each year for their fins. She got all of our attention, and the more this kind of behavior is publicized, the more people will begin to realize that we don't OWN the planet. The planet is for all of us to inhabit, care for, and cherish. Killing off a species for the sake of making massive amounts of money on soup is ludicrous. I have admiration for her.

[NunyaBus99]

12:23 PM on 08/27/2011

I guess people forget that trees absorbs that greenhouse gas called CO2. Less trees means less of a "filtration". Sure people can't seem to grasp that, but if they think all the rain forest destruction over the years had no impact they are crazy.

[jlbissette13]

01:08 PM on 08/27/2011

I tried to post this earlier put it didn't go through. I suggest you read this article by Shelley Clarke (the author of the paper where the 73 million number originated):

http://www­.seaweb.or­g/getinvol­ved/oceanv­oices/Shel­lyClarke.p­hp

Also, just so you know, Alice Newstead (the woman doing the hanging) has said she is doing it for the 100 million sharks. That number is completely made up. Many conservation organizations also use that number, but it has no scientific evidence to support it.

[Squidwoman]

01:28 PM on 08/27/2011

So, because there aren't "100 million" sharks per year, you don't see that this is relevant? Even if the number is the more conservative number of 26 million per year, it would only take 4 years at the conservative level to reach 100 million. For me, the fact that there are people who kill these sharks for their fins and don't consider this a problem is scary. The scientific guidelines that Dr. Clarke presents are truly important for a scientifically backed estimate...I agree. However, I don't agree with her that "we need to know how many sharks can be killed without damaging the long-term sustainability of shark populations and ocean ecosystems." Although this is an idealistic and hopeful goal, realism says that we (humans) very well may irreversibly damage the sustainability of the population before that happens. This activist is not worried about how many sharks are being killed, it is the inhumane and wasteful way they are killed.

[ashabot]

01:31 PM on 08/28/2011

And your point is?????