Hi, fish folks.
I live near many fish stores. The best store in the neighborhood had a fire and is in the process of rebuilding. Of the ones that are left, I have found that out of four on the West Side of Manhattan above 59th - which are the most convenient to me - three sell painted fish, and only one doesn't.
I have just sent the following letter to those three stores, although each letter is slightly different, to personalize it to each store:
___________________________________________
To the Manager:
I am a pet owner. I have four cats, and many fish in several tanks. I am an enthusiastic, active aquarium hobbyist. I live right around the corner from your store, in Morningside Gardens, and I have shopped in your store many times, for both cat and fish products.
The purpose of this letter is to tell you that I have no intention of buying anything from your store again.
You sell painted fish. Tetras, to be specific.
This is a disgusting, barbaric practice. It is done by injecting dye into the fish, often several times. It is torture for the fish. Only about 20% of them even survive the dyeing process and the rest die. The few that do survive have their lives severely shortened, and are no longer healthy. All in some stupid attempt to make an already beautiful creature more “colorful.”
And it is not only a barbaric practice, it is dishonest, since the dye fades, anyway, and most of the people who buy them do not know that, and do not even know what they are buying.
You are basically poisoning fish and then selling them to people after you poison them. It’s disgusting.
And by the way, the creatures are quite beautiful just the way they are. It is wrong and it is indefensible to harm them this way. And I do not buy so much as a paper clip from any pet store that sells painted fish.
Purchasing from your store would be condoning a practice that I find utterly abhorrent.
I also intend to point out this practice of your store to other hobbyists in the area who are absolutely unanimous in their condemnation of this practice. NOBODY supports this, although some people are ignorant of it.
STOP it. It stinks.
Carl Fortunato
New York City
______________________________
I'm going to drop by all of those stores about a month from now, and if they are still selling painted fish, I'm putting signs in their windows.
I live near many fish stores. The best store in the neighborhood had a fire and is in the process of rebuilding. Of the ones that are left, I have found that out of four on the West Side of Manhattan above 59th - which are the most convenient to me - three sell painted fish, and only one doesn't.
I have just sent the following letter to those three stores, although each letter is slightly different, to personalize it to each store:
___________________________________________
To the Manager:
I am a pet owner. I have four cats, and many fish in several tanks. I am an enthusiastic, active aquarium hobbyist. I live right around the corner from your store, in Morningside Gardens, and I have shopped in your store many times, for both cat and fish products.
The purpose of this letter is to tell you that I have no intention of buying anything from your store again.
You sell painted fish. Tetras, to be specific.
This is a disgusting, barbaric practice. It is done by injecting dye into the fish, often several times. It is torture for the fish. Only about 20% of them even survive the dyeing process and the rest die. The few that do survive have their lives severely shortened, and are no longer healthy. All in some stupid attempt to make an already beautiful creature more “colorful.”
And it is not only a barbaric practice, it is dishonest, since the dye fades, anyway, and most of the people who buy them do not know that, and do not even know what they are buying.
You are basically poisoning fish and then selling them to people after you poison them. It’s disgusting.
And by the way, the creatures are quite beautiful just the way they are. It is wrong and it is indefensible to harm them this way. And I do not buy so much as a paper clip from any pet store that sells painted fish.
Purchasing from your store would be condoning a practice that I find utterly abhorrent.
I also intend to point out this practice of your store to other hobbyists in the area who are absolutely unanimous in their condemnation of this practice. NOBODY supports this, although some people are ignorant of it.
STOP it. It stinks.
Carl Fortunato
New York City
______________________________
I'm going to drop by all of those stores about a month from now, and if they are still selling painted fish, I'm putting signs in their windows.
