‘STOP BLOWING FISH’: Animal rights activists slam bar for holding goldfish races
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Animal rights activists are protesting a California bar that holds weekly goldfish races, which have demonstrators up in arms over their “torture and exploitation.”
PB Shore Club in San Diego has held the fish races almost every week since the restaurant opened in 2007, local website SanDiegoVille reported.
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The races involve competitors using straws to blow behind the fish in tanks to encourage them to swim from end to end, which activists say cause stress, pain and harm to the animals.
“We’re protesting PB Shore Club because they continue to profit off of the torture of goldfish for entertainment,” vegan activist Justice Owens, founder of Bold Activists for Animal Liberation, told the website.
Owens and fellow activist Brooklyn Fontana are hoping the demonstrations, which they say is their way of “speaking up for the small and the silent,” will put an end to the establishment’s tradition.
The group say they have protested the event three times and have not heard a peep from PB Shore Club owners.
“They blocked us on social media, turned off comments, and are continuing to host these races.” Owens said, after the activist group tried to suggest more humane alternatives like arm wrestling.
“PB Shore Club can do anything that doesn’t involve animal torture, but they continue to torture these innocent sentient beings.”
The group doesn’t appear to be stopping the races anytime soon.
A recent Instagram post announced the return of “Cosmic Fish Races,” an elevated version of patrons’ “favorite weekday activity.”
Owens shared a video of a recent protest on Instagram, with the caption:
“PB Shore Club: Where cruelty is the main event,” he wrote.
“Goldfish can live for decades, but at this place, their lives are cut short for ‘entertainment,’” Owens continued.
“Forced into stressful races, these innocent animals suffer and die prematurely, all for the sake of a bet. Why exploit lives when you could host arm wrestling or any other humane event?”
He added: “Animals aren’t objects. Goldfish aren’t toys. It’s time to end this cruelty.”
They have since launched a Change.org petition to try to put a stop to the weekly races.
“Compassionate residents and animal lovers of San Diego have been disturbed to witness an ongoing event at the PB Shore Club that profits off of exploitation and animal cruelty,” their plea begins.
“Every Wednesday night, the PB Shore Club hosts a spectacle that subjects goldfish to pain and suffering and even results in death: goldfish racing. These ‘races’ place goldfish in a loud, stressful environment where patrons use straws to blow them through narrow and shallow gutters.”
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They note that goldfish are “sentient beings whose small size and fragile bone structure make highly vulnerable to fatal trauma.”
Fontana adds: “Goldfish experience pain and fear, goldfish form families, and goldfish definitely do not want to be the victim of drunk bar-goers cruel and lethal games.”
The petition has so far garnered 322 signatures.
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