PETA ASKS G20 SUMMIT ORGANIZERS NOT TO USE FISH TO TEST WATER QUALITY

Protect World Leaders With More Reliable, Non-Animal Methods, Group Says

For Immediate Release:
November 10, 2010

Contact: 
Alicia Woempner 757-622-7382

Washington -- Today, PETA sent a letter to organizers of the G20 summit in Seoul, South Korea, asking them to cancel plans to test restroom water purity at the summit site by putting goldfish into the water. The animal rights group points out that modern, sophisticated non-animal methods of testing water purity give more accurate and reliable results without risking harm to living, sentient beings. 

"Protecting world leaders is very serious, but so is protecting animals who feel pain just as people do," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "In the 21^st century, there is no reason to fall back on antiquated methods that offer little information other than visible proof of suffering." 

Scientific studies have demonstrated that fish feel pain and fear just as cats and dogs do. According to one British study, when subjected to a potentially painful experience, fish engaged in "profound behavioural and physiological changes," including exhibiting a rocking motion that was "strikingly similar to the kind of motion seen in stressed higher vertebrates like mammals." Fish are interesting and intelligent animals who learn from one another, have long-term memories, recognize individuals in their schools, gather information by eavesdropping, use tools, and can even tell time. 

For more information, please visit PETA.org.  

PETA's letter to the organizers of the G20 summit follows.

November 10, 2010 

Sung-won Hong
President and CEO
COEX Convention and Exhibition Center

Ryan S.G. Han
Manager of Convention Planning

Dear Messrs. Hong and Han: 

On behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and our more than 2 million members and supporters, I am writing to ask that you immediately stop using goldfish to test water purity, as news outlets recently reported COEX was doing in advance of the G20 summit. There are a variety of modern scientific methods that would better protect world leaders and keep fish from enduring agonizing deaths from contaminated water. 

Fish are smart and curious animals who can recognize individuals, form complex social relationships, and feel distress and pain. An issue of Fish and Fisheries devoted to fish learning cited more than 500 research papers proving that fish are intelligent, have impressive long-term memories and sophisticated social structures, and can use tools. Numerous scientific reports from around the world confirm that fish feel pain. Researchers from the University of Edinburgh and University of Glasgow studied the pain receptors in fish and found that they were strikingly similar to those of mammals; the researchers concluded that "fish do have the capacity for pain perception and suffering."  

Subjecting goldfish to contaminated water would serve little purpose besides causing them to suffer horribly. After all, the fish cannot tell you specifically what might be wrong with the water. However, sophisticated non-animal analytical methods—including high-performance liquid chromatography, solid phase extraction, biometric extraction, gas chromatography combined with mass spectroscopy, or gas chromatography followed by detection by a flame ionization detector—can more reliably detect and isolate the cause of any potential water problems. 

Please let us know that you'll spare these goldfish and rely instead on truly modern scientific methods of quality assurance. Thank you. 

Sincerely,  

Tracy Reiman
Executive Vice President