9 replies to this topic

[DesertEagle]

I had hoped that this was some sort of April Fool's joke; it is not. According to a slew of articles, some enterprising people in China are now selling keychains with live fish and turtles sealed inside. The animals have perhaps a few days to live before they suffocate or starve. The need for animal protction laws is clear.


Credit: NGO Capital Animal Welfare Association
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http://newsfeed.time...rtles-and-fish/
Live turtles and fish to carry around on your key ring is a cute idea. Not so cute, though, for said turtles and fish.
According to Chinese media, the hottest new fad in China involves selling small live-animal key chains. The little turtles and fishes are sealed up in airtight plastic key rings, and sold as trinkets.
Read more: http://newsfeed.time.../#ixzz1IgHNmoUl

[Balrog]

I feel sick.
Whoever would buy such a thing, let alone the people who make them.

[davichin]

No words. I cannot erase that image from my mind.

[Drew]

I do think we should have some perspective. I remember as a kid, my mom bought us all little turtles as part of a kindergarten project. Turtles swim all their lives right? So we dropped them in a tank with other fish while reading up on them. Whoops! Too late!
Plenty of pet turtles die at the hand of ignorant people all over the world. It may be cruel to watch it suffocate in the plastic key chain but so is letting all sorts of people legally buy them as home pets at all to be killed in whatever fashion.

[Giles]

Drew .. really?

there is a huge difference here, these animals are sealed in what looks like quite sturdy plastic with no air.. The pet trade is encouraging people to take home and care for animals just because that doesn't always happen thats the idea and principal of having a pet ... this is like a real life version of those stupid electronic pet keychains ... except with real animals, who's function is to look pretty, die, be thrown away and replaced.

Animals and life in general is not a throw away commodity.

[TheRealDrew]

I do think we should have some perspective.

Venders claim the water inside the pouch is nutrient-rich, and that the animals can live for a month or longer.

People buying pets do not expect them to last one month. People can debate what should be kept as a pet or not, and what education should be required before someone is even allowed to have a pet, but comparing packaging animals in a package that is a death sentence with pets in general seems to be a stretch of perspective.

[Drew]

This particular activity is revolting (personally it's ), but for some even bullfighting and sport fishing/hunting (the list goes on) is cruel. Apropos to this new fad, packaging animals is a human activity that's been going on for centuries. We package animals for death for food, clothing (minks etc) and entertainment. This key chain is no more "cruel" than stuffing 40k chickens in pens, fattened up for the inevitable death for food on our plates. Why do farm animals get the ignore button but farmed turtles and goldfish garner outrage?

Every culture (and every individual human being) on Earth have different perspectives on how (and which) animals are treated. It's a sociological indictment of being human in general.

[furby076]

Comparing this to killing animals for food/clothing is silly. There is no need to have a key chain turtle. imagine if you were stuck in a plastic bag, shaken about, tossed around, and suffocating slowly.

Comparing this to a pet is also silly. Yes some kids screw up and cause their pets to die (as in the example of one of the posters here) but that is a far cry from here.

It amazes me how cruel Japan is to non-human life. For such a rich culture, full of law abiding citizens, in an industrialized nation they sure do some pretty cruel things.

[danielandrewclem]

It amazes me how cruel Japan is to non-human life. For such a rich culture, full of law abiding citizens, in an industrialized nation they sure do some pretty cruel things.

I think the nation at issue here is China.

[furby076]

I think the nation at issue here is China.

Whoops. My bad for that. I was thinking whale hunting also. I will append my post. Thank you

It still applies - China has a rich history as well.