Speak Out Against Animal Giveaways in Bellbrook, OH!
Experts agree that fish are highly complex animals who have the same capacity to feel pain, fear, and stress as mammals do, and they deserve better than to be doled out as trinkets. However, PETA learned that the Bellbrook Lions Club Summerfest, organized by the Bellbrook Lions Club—a volunteer group that serves the community— in Bellbrook, Ohio, apparently hired a midway company to provide entertainment, which doled out goldfish as prizes to its game booth attendees, August 14 and 15. One complainant alleged that several goldfish were found abandoned behind the nearby middle school—a cruel fate that also violates Ohio anti-cruelty statute which prohibits abandoning animals.
Goldfish are sentient beings, and being carted from one event to the next, placed in tiny plastic bags without aeration/oxygen, and being jostled by booth winners is a miserable experience for these animals. And when kept in captivity, these animals require a sizeable amount of water (one goldfish requires at least 25 gallons!), climate control and filtration, regular aquarium maintenance, and ample enrichment. Most spontaneous recipients of these living, feeling “prizes” are hardly prepared for such a commitment, and the animals suffer as a result.
Please join PETA in politely urging the Bellbrook Lions Club to ask its midway provider to exclude this booth moving forward and to forgo animal giveaways at future events—then share this alert with everyone you know!
Send polite comments to:
Bellbrook Lions Club
Send an email via their online form here:
Mr. Tea Yankel, Summerfest Chair
Bellbrook Lions Club
[email protected]
Please also leave a comment on their Facebook page:
