Round goldfish bowls are out and daily dog walks are in for all law-abiding citizens of Rome.
City councillors in the Italian capital voted on Tuesday to ban spherical goldfish bowls, saying it's in the best interest of the fish.
Rome's daily newspaper Il Messaggero reported that round bowls cause fish to go blind. Animal activists call the bowls cruel, while fish experts say the bowls don't provide enough oxygen.
The bylaw also prohibits giving away goldfish or other animals as prizes.
"The civilization of a city can also be measured by this," city councillor Monica Cirinna told the newspaper.
Rome also followed in the footsteps of the northern Italian city of Turin, making it the law for dog owners to exercise their dogs daily. Failure to comply could cost dog owners a fine of $700.The Roman bylaw also prevents animal owners from clipping dogs' tails or trimming cats' claws for visual appeal or leaving animals in hot vehicles or store windows. It also offers legal protection to people who feed colonies of cats.
7 comments:
This may seem funny to us, but I've spent some time in Italy and they're really, really into animal rights, in an almost obsessive way. It's kinda refreshing, actually.
I am all for it!
i love this! we don't have anything close to this in toronto. we just got the infamous pitbull ban which i think is appalling.
and i love the goldfish laws. very enlightened.
(random blogexplosion visit)
I know it sounds funny, but it's actually true. Bowls are horribly cruel to goldfish. That's really amazing they decided to enact that kind of law. Go Italy.
Okay, I love animals, but who cares about goldfish? It's not like they have a lot to see anyway. They have a small memory and after they fertilize their eggs they usually eat them.
They don't contribute anything to society except to please tiny children who should not have any pets to begin with.
just because a goldfish doesn't contribute anything to your life, doesn't mean that it doesn't have a right to exist.
the last time i checked, none of us had any idea of what it is like to be a goldfish.
on top of that, anything you decide to take in, you claim responsibility for, and anyone who decides to adopt any animal had better be prepared to give them the best care possible.
We bought this popular-for-awhile mini-aquarium for MD one year; teeny weeny fish in a plexiglass box. MD was enchanted but I felt claustrophobic every time I looked at it. Someone eased my conscience by informing me that fish only have a 3second memory (which Jodyleila tells me simply isn't true).
One day Eddy knocked it off the counter and it exploded. (as Claire said, "can you imagine what that must have been like for them? their whole world actually exploded!" Luckily we were home and we saved them and put them in a goldfish bowl, which must have been a mansion in comparison, for their remaining lifetime, and that was the end of our fish-keeping career.
When we develop a deep respect for all living things (Kentucky Fried Chicken, anyone?) we may be able to keep our own world from destruction.
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