On Saturday I went to Walmart to pick up an air pump and checked out their tanks. As usual, nasty state, dead fish everywhere etc. AND a 10 gal holding about 30 "mixed fruit tetras" at $3.69 a pop! I kept thinking and thinking about it, and couldn't contain myself, so I wrote a letter to the store, to Wal-Mart headquarters, and sent a copy to PETA as well. To long to reproduce here, but basically stated the above, gave a brief run-down of how they are produced, and the following:
"Not only is it amazingly cruel to the fish, it is unfair to the consumer. What Wal-Mart is selling is essentially a damaged product to an uninformed customer, by an employee that can be viewed as either poorly trained on the specific care necessary, or one that simply doesn't care all that much. It would be tantamount to selling a misidentified and diseased plant from the garden department, without specific care instructions, all the while assuring the buyer that watering it will keep it thriving at home. While you may see this as an insignificant problem, it isn't. Your website claims 1300 stores. If just 1/2 of your stores sold just 1/2 the number I saw on Saturday at the quoted price, then you have made nearly $40,000 in sales on this poor fish."
I then requested that their buyer not by anymore altered fish, that Wal-Mart commit to not using the supplier from which they were purchased, and that they consider better training specific employees for the pet department.
Probably just a drop in the proverbial bucket, but cutting the demand will end the supply.