Subj : Re: Tropical fish campaig To : All From : Michi Henning Date : Fri Dec 19 2003 08:44 pm "Jordi Casamitjana" wrote in message news:60659087.0312190126.7fc6715c@posting.google.com... > For your interested, Advocates for Animals (Scotland, UK) are > launching a campaign called GLASS PRISONS, EMPTY LIVES about the > problems of keeping tropical fish. You can see it at: > > http://www.advocatesforanimals.org/glassprisons/glassprisons.htm Interesting article. Although, personally, I wouldn't go as far as calling my fish "sentient"... One thing that repeatedly comes up in the article is how the fish can "see its reflection in the tank's front glass." That appears to be impossible to me: the fish look right through the glass from the inside, just as we look right through the glass from the outside. Any reflection would be very faint and almost invisible because, at an angle of close to 90 degrees, glass reflects very little light. Some bias there too. For example: "If we add fish taken for the food industry, then 90% of each of the world's large ocean species, including cod, halibut, tuna, swordfish and marlin, have disappeared from the world's oceans in recent decades, according to the Canadian analysis. (5)" While this may be true, I don't see what it has to do with keeping aquarium fish, given that none of the mentioned species are kept in aquariums. So the point is thrown in for its alarmist value and, on casual reading, it is likely that many people will not notice its irrelevance. I do feel sorry for the thousands of poor bettas though. Being forced to hang motionless in a few cubic inches of water is cruelty in my book. (And having kept bettas before, I know that they like to swim around a lot if they have the room to do so...) And I have no doubt that Finding Nemo will contribute toward a larger than usual share of aquarium fish dying in the few weeks after christmas (which, incidentally, seems to be the time with the highest death rate for any kind of pet...) Cheers, Michi. -- Michi Henning Ph: +61 4 1118-2700 ZeroC, Inc. http://www.zeroc.com --- þ RIMEGate(tm)/RGXPost V1.14 at BBSWORLD * Info@bbsworld.com --- * RIMEGate(tm)V10.2áÿ* RelayNet(tm) NNTP Gateway * MoonDog BBS * RgateImp.MoonDog.BBS at 12/19/03 8:44:51 PM * Origin: MoonDog BBS, Brooklyn,NY, 718 692-2498, 1:278/230 (1:278/230) .