San Francisco Considers Ban on Goldfish as Pets to Prevent Their 'Inhumane Suffering' - FoxNews.com

It isn't quite as silly and Draconian as it sounds: San Francisco Considers Ban on Goldfish as Pets to Prevent Their 'Inhumane Suffering' - FoxNews.com. There's a lot of truth in what proponents of this bill say about this proposed ban:

“They [pet store owners] have a very strong interest to say it’s stupid,” he told Fox News Radio. “That’s the basic thing with human beings. We exploit everything in the world until it’s exhausted.”

Gerrie accused the “human” species of exploiting the environment – and the fish.

“Humans are overfishing for food,” he said. “There’s a huge market for aquarium fish. That creates a demand.”

As for people who would argue that it’s just a goldfish? “That’s how we are in this society,” Gerrie said. “Some people say, ‘It’s just a human’ – when it comes to some that kill. It’s a matter of degree. Where do you stop?”

I hate it when I see goldfish given away in plastic bags to kids who run around with the poor fish suffocating, until they remember they have the thing and then plop into a too small container and overfeed -- or not feed it enough -- until the golfish dies a few days later. Or when, as I argued with a staff member at a kid's event years ago, that there was too much water in the bowl. He just wouldn't get the idea of volume and surface area and ... anyway, lot of truth here.

On the other hand, there are responsible humans who enjoy having aquariums and take good care of their animals. I know I did. I really enjoyed having a variety of fancy goldfish and took caring for them seriously. (Hell, I even cried when a plain old goldfish variety died; I had him for several years!) Those fish are bred, not captured, like tropical fish.

I do hate it though when certain animals are sold as "pets" -- hedgehogs and prairie dogs and so on are not "pets" and I don't care how much you insist they are.

Maybe education rather than laws like this proposed one. I think laws like this will just make people more contrary and they'll go out of their way to be ignorant and jerks when it comes to "owning" animals.