RE: NANFA-- Humane Society for Fish

Mark B (mbinkley_at_earthling.net)
Tue, 1 Feb 2000 09:58:51 -0500

At 1:47 PM -0600 1/31/00, Ty_Hall_at_eFunds.Com wrote:
>Other questions to ask; What are you going to do with the fish you get?
>Adopt them out? Euthanize them? Sell them? You can't just sit on them until
>they die of old age. Until some type of plan to permanently deal with the
>fish, that are dropped off, is developed it's nearly impossible to proceed.
>While I'd be interested in helping in some type of effort, these are just a
>couple of the decisions that need to be made ahead of time. I'm also afraid
>that this really isn't a viable solution. I was in an LFS last week and he
>was selling Peacock Bass! These fish grow to 20 pounds or more! There are
>very few people out there that have tanks large enough to house a fish of
>this size. So in two or three years, what do you do with this huge fish? If
>they drop it off at our little "Humane Society" what do we do with it?
>Last, if we decide to give the fish away, what does that do to the local
>LFS businesses? They can't be working on a large margin and if someone is
>giving away their products, I don't see how they can survive. The big guys
>will be ok, but the Mom & Pop LFS's would be in trouble. Just a little
>Devil's adovcacy.

You could have a tiered plan - Keep them if you want them, give them away
or sell them, euthanize them if it seems prudent. Any of those are better
than letting them loose into the environment. Donors would have to be
willing to accept the judgement of the recipient group, just as they are
with the Humane Society. Personally, with large fish, I'm in favor of the
fish fry option. Isn't that what's done with large cows? 'Course the
animal rights types won't like that. Neither will some pet owners. To
each his own. Euthanasia would work too for unadoptable fishes. We could
provide a newsletter to public aquaria listing large specimens that are
available. If they're not adopted within a certain time (defined by the
person holding them), they would be euthanized (or barbequed!).

As far as the impact on fish shops, they are creating the problem, so I
don't have much sympathy. Though we could offer the fish back to them.
Many don't want the large fish that take longer to sell. Maybe a competing
service would encourage them to take back unwanted pets and publicize said
policy. They can euthanize just as well as we can. Or they can resell.

The most attractive option, it seems to me, is to get aquarium clubs
involved who can sell the fish at their auctions as a fund raiser.
Individual volunteers could do the same for their own profit. I'm not sure
what volumn we would actually see. I think most peole just flush their
unwanted fish...unless they're too big...

Mark Binkley
Columbus Ohio USA <))><
mbinkley_at_earthling.net

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