Today I had the misfortune of seeing another sad animal rights case involving Bettas: Petco is now(?) selling "Baby" Bettas. The fish are about the third the size of your pinky, kept in the same containers as the other Bettas (i.e a tupperware container with a lid) and being sold for $1.99.
This made me so sad. I was seconds away from buying one of them because it looked tattered and hungry and probably wouldn't survive very long. But I had to remind myself that buying one of them only means the Pet industries get the money and will replace it with others. It's a crappy choice to make, I really wanted to buy the fish anyway and throw it in one of my shrimp tanks. I know they eat shrimp, but he was so tiny he couldn't eat a newly hatched one-- which makes me wonder what they were feeding him, if anything at all.
I guess this just really stuck with me today. It's one thing to sell Bettas in squalid conditions to people without even telling them how to care for them, but to add the gimmick of a "baby" fish is another level of cruelty because it preys on our psychological need to take care of things weaker than ourselves.
Well it made me pretty pissed.
This made me so sad. I was seconds away from buying one of them because it looked tattered and hungry and probably wouldn't survive very long. But I had to remind myself that buying one of them only means the Pet industries get the money and will replace it with others. It's a crappy choice to make, I really wanted to buy the fish anyway and throw it in one of my shrimp tanks. I know they eat shrimp, but he was so tiny he couldn't eat a newly hatched one-- which makes me wonder what they were feeding him, if anything at all.
I guess this just really stuck with me today. It's one thing to sell Bettas in squalid conditions to people without even telling them how to care for them, but to add the gimmick of a "baby" fish is another level of cruelty because it preys on our psychological need to take care of things weaker than ourselves.
Well it made me pretty pissed.