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Goldfish as prizes
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Is it still legal? Or is it just illegal to give to under 16s?
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People with stalls with goldfishes makes me :mad: give them a toy fish- cheaper and easier to look after.
if you want a goldfish i think you should take a trip to the pet shop. animals shouldn't be given as prizes. poor fishies!
Ahhh I didn't know about that. I've been chasing fairs for a few years now and only just noticed the buckets. I didn't realise it was at extra cost.
I own probably about 70 fish and 20 shrimp. None of them goldfish though.
7 packets of fish fingers and a prawn balti doesn't count
Damn... but I named one fish finger Pete. Does that help? +puppy eyes+
Or jocks
Pete the fish finger. Has a nice ring to it
Don't tell me laws and bureaucracy is interfering with a harmless bit of cruelty to animals. Honestly, what is the world coming to?
If it hasn't been banned yet, it bloody well should be.
Some people are disgusted when they see animals being used as prizes; including goldfish and it's not surprising when you hear about some of the stories people have.
For example what SuzyCreamcheese says 'all the ones ive ever won, died after about a day anyway. They dont survive the trauma of being hung up in a bag all day in the sun, and then jostled home'.
There is actually a petition at 10 Downing Street right now to ban the practice of giving goldfish away at funfairs. You can visit the petition at this website and you can sign up if this is something you feel strongly about. The deadline is 26 September 2010. However, at the moment it seems like they are updating their e-petition service so you might not be able to sign up straight away but you can keep checking the site for any updates. If you find a way of signing up then let us know.
There was also a previous petition on the same issue; http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Goldfishprizes/. And the PM's response can be found at http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page20730.
So clearly people do feel strongly about this and want to change the law to make it stricter for people to give goldfish away as prizes.
As for the current law;
The Animal Welfare Act 2006 makes it illegal to give animals as prizes to under 16's who are unaccompanied by an adult. The Act also makes it an offence to fail to provide for the welfare of the animal; he maximum penalty is a fine of £5,000 or 6 months imprisonment, or both.
It is also an offence to cause an animal any unnecessary suffering. The maximum penalty is a fine of £20,000 or 6 months imprisonment, or both.
Hope this helps.
Goldfish are much more difficult to look after than tropical fish. Goldfish produce a lot mire waste per inch of fish therefore need cleaned out more often. They also grow to 8-10 inches long and so will need at 3ft tank. Bowls are a common misconception and you absolutely must get a filter. Winning a goldfish at a fair commits you to at least 50 quid of expenditure if not much more if you want to try to keep the damn thing alive.
Totally daft idea.