Live animals are *not* an appropriate trick-or-treat present!

[conuly]

Do *not* give goldfish to children for Halloween! WTF is wrong with you?

Note to self: Don't patronize that fish fancy store. They clearly don't care about the animals if they're just handing out goldfish willy-nilly to small children.

(Mind, if we could've given away Sweetheart to a trick-or-treater, we would've jumped at the chance... but as I told the girls when Jenn said she tried, nobody is ever allowed to take a cat from me without first enduring a long lecture on the Care and Feeding thereof. Section A: Declawing. If they get past the word "declawing" without immediately saying "omg that's horrible I would never do such an awful thing to a poor, innocent animal" then they do not get a cat from me. Section B: Food dyes, and why they don't belong in cat food. Section C: Cats are desert animals. Does yours get enough water? Section D: Declawing, again, and the behavior problems caused by same. If they manage to sit all the way through twenty minutes of me declaiming on the subject of why cats should keep their claws, plus another thirty-odd minutes on everything else, I know they're a keeper.)

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Comments

[luscious_purple]

I've always found a great solution to the scratching thing: Purchase cheap scratch pad made of corrugated cardboard. Sprinkle catnip on pad. Place cat on pad and praise the cat to the skies for doing what comes naturally. Repeat until the cat associates the scratch pad with Total Happiness (which usually doesn't take long).

I *love* it when Julia walks over to one of her scratch pads and proceeds to rip it up.

[conuly]

Oh, yeah. Our kitties love those.

Additionally: Clipping cat nails is not so scary! You can do it! Yes you can!

[archangelbeth]

And if the cat makes it scary, Elizabethean Collar time! Growl and snap all you want, tiny tiger. Those claws are gettin' clipped 'cause you play rough.

[conuly]

You are the only person I've seen who calls it that, btw. Everybody else calls it an e-collar, and I had to look it up to find out what e stands for!

[archangelbeth]

Huh! It was the terminology of my youth, and CatFancy Magazine! I intersperse it with "Cone of Shame" as a context definition. ...I don't think I've heard anyone call it an e-collar, actually. "Collar" or "cone" at the vets if the topic comes up.

[conuly]

Normal people, ime, call it a cone or cone collar most often. Vets and people who spend an awful lot of their time doing rescue etc. are more likely to call it an e-collar.

[archangelbeth]

Well, it's true that Elizabethan Collar is a mouthful, yes...

[gatheringrivers]

when did giving animals away for halloween become a thing??? OMG what insanity!

(all of MY cats have ALL of their claws - despite what seems to be their efforts sometimes at declawing THEMSELVES when they freak out in the middle of scratching something...)

[conuly]

Seriously.

[author_by_night]

Yeah, my cat just about declawed herself a few weeks ago from freaking out! But I would never do that to her. She loves her claws.

[larryhammer]

Do *not* give goldfish to children for Halloween!

I ... whut? Wait -- no.

[conuly]

To make it worse, the goldfish ended up stolen along with all of the older boy's candy. This is my fault, and I accept full responsibility, and I agreed to replace the candy. (But not the fish.)

[author_by_night]

Yikes. :(

[moem]

Declawing is not much of a thing here. I've never seen a declawed cat... and all three of ours trim their own claws by scratching and climbing trees.

[thewayne]

Live goldfish. That's just mindblowing that someone thought that a good idea. While I am greatly amused by the signs that say 'Unattended children will be given a puppy and an espresso', just NO.

[conuly]

People think of goldfish as disposable pets :(

[thewayne]

The concept of disposable pets is not far from the concept of disposable people.  I saw a bumper sticker recently that said "When Jesus said to love your neighbor, I don't think he meant for you to kill them."  While some pets admittedly have very short life spans, gold fish among them, giving them away so broadly to people who are not looking for them and are probably not prepared to house them properly or care for them is just insanely stupid.  I think if a pet store were doing a giveaway: come in costume and we'll give you fish and instructions with the discounted purchase of a small tank and food, then fine.  They may make a customer for life.  But no blind giveaways. On the opposite coast, California just passed a law banning pet stores from engaging in certain types of pet breeding retailing.  The intent is to encourage people to obtain pets from shelters, which I think is a wonderful concept, but the people who want special breeds will just go out of state or underground.  Does this solve a problem?  Time will tell.  I wasan't entirely clear on the article that I read, but I've also been sick and am a little foggy-headed.

[conuly]

Goldfish, when properly cared for, can live for decades. They do not have a "short lifespan" unless you don't take care of them.

/soapbox

[conuly]

They're also fairly intelligent. Keeping them in a little bowl is not only going to kill them (can't keep it clean enough) but is also akin to putting a human in solitary confinement, aka torture. They need space, and enrichment, for both their physical and mental health.

[thewayne]

Thank you for the info.  I've never been a fish person, so I'm not particularly knowlegable on the subject, wanted to but never pursued.  Seems like I'd heard of the potential long lifespan.  Like I said, brain is very fuzzy at the moment -- no umbrage intentionally offered, I will probably be a little more coherent and rational in a week or two.

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<p>Thank you for the info.  I've never been a fish person, so I'm not particularly knowlegable on the subject, wanted to but never pursued.  Seems like I'd heard of the potential long lifespan.  Like I said, brain is very fuzzy at the moment -- no umbrage intentionally offered, I will probably be a little more coherent and rational in a week or two. <humble grin &amp; shrug></p>

[author_by_night]

At first I thought you meant those goldfish crackers. Then I realized you meant actual goldfish.

WTF?

And was the store handing them out? Or were goldfish being handed out by neighbors during trick-or-treating? (Or by the store handing them out to kids about to go trick-or-treating.) Because the latter sounds so dangerous for the fish (the fish could so easily be crushed by other candy, die from being thrown around while the kid runs, the bag could open, etc. - which in turn would be incredibly upsetting for the poor kid).

Even if it's not the terrible scenario I'm envisioning, it's still not a good idea to give fish out willy-nilly like that.

[conuly]

I'm 100% certain it was the fish store two blocks from the school.

And yes, the whole world seems to think I meant crackers.

[author_by_night]

But was it as one of those daytime trick or treat at businesses? Or were the kids going as they were trick or treating? That's what I meant to ask. It's a bad idea either way, but the idea of the goldfish being lumped with everyone's candy horrifies me.


And yes, the whole world seems to think I meant crackers.

Eh, I was pretty clear on what you meant? It was just this part ("Do *not* give goldfish to children for Halloween! ") that had me thinking crackers at first. Then you elaborated and I realized nope, the store was actually giving away live goldfish.

[conuly]

I don't know when they went, exactly, but it was at a business. They don't have special trick-or-treat hours...?

My sister thought it was goldfish crackers too, and when she figured it out she was horrified - though relieved that I wasn't condemning goldfish crackers so strongly!

[author_by_night]

I'm being epically unclear and making this more confusing. :P Was this part of their regular trick-or-treating, or something separate?

ETA: You know what, never mind. :) I think I'm confused because in my town, some stores DO have special trick or treating. So that's where my mind went. Evidently yours doesn't. Sorry, don't mind me.

[chanter1944]

Declawing is horrible, no argument there. So is giving away live fish as Halloween treats, WTF?

*pets Sweetheart* I just bet she's of the Ooh, another friend! school of greeting trick or treaters. I'm probably projecting. :)

[siderea]

Thousands of women take legal action over mesh implants

AUGH.

[8hyenas]

So what's this about dyes in cat food? Which food do you feed?

Signed, Someone who wasn't at all concerned about cat food quality until seconds ago

[conuly]

Cats don't see color. The dyes are for the benefit of humans. This would just be silly, except dyes are a carcinogen for cats (!)

So no dyes. I try to feed Nutro Max when I can afford it. Otherwise I go for Purina. Ideally, your cats should get primarily wet food with no grains. This is pricey, so I focus on two main points: no dyes, plenty of water if you give them dry food.

[8hyenas]

We're a cat chow house, is it the "naturals" or just "complete" that you use?

I looked up the Nutro Max, and yeah, we're a purina house.

[sgatazmy]

Wait we’re not talking about crackers? Seriously????

[conuly]

SERIOUSLY.

[rahirah]

Goldfish????

[conuly]

GOLDFISH.

[sallymn]

Oh. My. God......

That's appalling (I guess they just wanted to get rid of old stock but you're right, I'd never go there)

[stormsong]

My cat won't drink water, but she eats wet food so I guess she's OK.

[archangelbeth]

BABY ASPIRIN!?!

Yeah, I was warned "don't take anything but tylenol!" when I was pregnant. (Tylenol does not affect my pain, in general. Ibuprofen is my BFF.) I was also a Surprise Pre-Eclampsia. It came on in days, and I had no idea it wasn't normal water retention. *sigh*

[conuly]

Now you know for the future.

[archangelbeth]

As the offspring from that one, despite the 2-months-early hatching, is nearly 18... A bit late for me. >_>

Sent from my iPhone

[conuly]

Well, it could happen. My mother has a set of cousins, five of them. The oldest three grew up with my grandmother and are or would be in their 90s now. 7 years after the third was born the fourth, and the youngest, born a decade later, is the same age as my mother. Her mother was 26 when she was born, so that's the difference in ages between oldest and youngest, more or less.

You know, they tell us that a quarter century is a demographic generation.

[archangelbeth]

My Paragard will hopefully keep matters from going there! (My spouse is 17 years older than I am, & my kid is high-maintenance--NO MORE!)

Sent from my iPhone

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Live goldfish as treats?!? Yeah right; are the kids expected to swallow them? Or, what, carry them around in their treats bags all evening, till they get home and find them floating upside down? It's not the stupidest thing I've heard today (because I've already scanned the news from Trumpland) but it's right up there.

Aquarium stores don't give a damn about goldfish, which are mostly sold as live food for carnivorous species. However, they do care about their public image, so writing to the owner to say that giving pets as 'treats' is cruel to the animals and unfair to the children might have an effect. If they want to give goldfish as treats, they can go buy those little cracker packets.