Siamese fighting fish: Video shows mistreated and grossly neglected animals
Part of PETA’s motto is: animals are not here for us to exploit in any way. The organisation campaigns against speciesism — a worldview that considers humans superior to all other living beings.
In January, PETA contacted the ornamental fish wholesaler EFS, based in Sonnefeld, and informed the company about a eyewitness report by PETA Asia.
This report uncovered serious grievances at ten Thai facilities that breed Siamese fighting fish or ship them to pet shops around the world — including to Germany.
According to PETA Asia, EFS imports from Q.P.S. International Aquatics Co. Ltd., which can be seen in the video at minute 1:41 to 1:59. In their letter, the animal rights organisation pointed out that Betta fish in Thailand are packed into small plastic bags, starved, and transported thousands of kilometres to local pet shops. EFS has so far not responded to the letter. PETA called on the company again in mid-February to cease trading in Siamese fighting fish.
„Many of the sensitive fish die during breeding and transportation — they are mistreated, go hungry, suffer from breathing difficulties, or are sorted out like lifeless goods due to cosmetic ‘defects’. We urge EFS to put an end to this animal cruelty and stop importing Siamese fighting fish”.
Dr. Tanja Breining, marine biologist and specialist adviser on fish and marine animals at PETA
Background information
The video by PETA Asia shows Betta fighting fish floating motionless in dirty water tanks. The organization's eyewitness visited a total of ten facilities, including breeding and packaging operations. There, he discovered countless dead fighting fish, many of which were lying on the ground and had presumably suffocated. Numerous fish were deliberately left out of the water for extended periods, gasping desperately for air, while workers sorted them by hand in sieves for transport. The fish are shipped in tiny containers holding just enough water to cover their bodies. For worldwide shipping, they are packaged without any food and sent on a multi-day journey by air freight. An employee told the eyewitness that sedatives are added to the water to prevent the fish from nibbling on their own tail fins during transport. If these were damaged, the animals were considered unprofitable; according to one employee, they were dumped into a nearby canal or pond and left to fend for themselves.
Since the breeding and transport of fish always involves animal suffering, the animal rights organization urges everyone not to purchase fish from pet shops, breeders, or online.
More on the subject of recreational hunting: In our dossiers on the criticism of recreational hunting gather fact-checks, analyses and background reports. The scientific evidence is presented in the overview Studies on the Effects of Recreational Hunting.
The position of IG Wild beim Wild: IG Wild beim Wild rejects recreational hunting. Our model is the canton of Geneva, which has managed without recreational hunting since 1974: without hunting seasons, without hunting dogs, without driven hunts, without high seats, without the animal cruelty and crime that go hand in hand with hunting season elsewhere. What has worked there for over fifty years disproves every position paper by JagdSchweiz. An association that bases its policy on claims it refutes in its own documents is not a professional organisation, but a factory for misinformation.
