My partner and I attended Shenley Fete last weekend and were astounded that one of the stalls was giving away goldfish as a booby prize.

We immediately got in touch with the organiser of the fete, who stated she had not been aware of the goldfish being given as prizes and that she would request this didn’t happen in future years. This is great for future goldfish, but it didn’t help the unfortunate ones of this year.

The law states goldfish are not permitted to be given as a prize to children unless accompanied by an adult of 16, or over.

However, most authorities discourage the giving of any live creature as a prize.

Indeed, receivers of these goldfish are generally unprepared and often have no knowledge on how to care for them.

In addition, on such a hot day, being carried around in a small plastic bag means the oxygen levels would not last very long for the unfortunate fish and they often don’t survive very long.

This barbaric practice can be stopped — please do not support any stall giving them away at fetes and so on. My partner and I were amazed the law still allowed this practice to continue — please can we ask everyone to lobby for the wellbeing of goldfish and any other live creature being given away as prizes in the future.

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