Are you what you eat?

There are goldfish on my diningroom table. That is not the same as fairies at the bottom of the garden, since those are conjecture and these are real, swimming, bubbling, suffering creatures--nine of them in a space meant for two max--which a friend of my son�s brought here yesterday to use in some video project, and then abandoned as the filming was aborted for the weekend.

Canada, alone of all its Commonwealth compatriots, still celebrates Victoria Day (May 24) and this Monday is a holiday. It is traditionally marked by the setting off of fireworks, and in my childhood we referred to it as �Firecracker Day�. Here in Quebec it is called f�te de la reine, although I would hazard a guess that most Qu�becois have no idea which queen and why.

Anyway, because Monday is a holiday, the English schools also had Friday off (they would have had Thursday too, but it was taken back for a snow day) and Buddy Boy planned a media project extravaganza which sadly never panned out. One of his participants, however, arrived on our doorstep with a container full of goldfish. I have no idea what they planned to do with them, but they obviously had no idea as to their care and feeding. Buddy Boy and his friends wandered over to another boy�s place in town, leaving the fish (first sprinkling fish food in their confined quarters), not realizing that they need much more space and will soon die from the stress of overcrowding if it is not remedied.

Finally, unable to tolerate their (conjectured) suffering any longer, my husband called his son at the friend�s house and explained that this was an insupportable situation. So the boy responsible for their purchase will take them home--actually, we will be driving him and his new pets home, where hopefully he will treat them in a more humane fashion.

My husband brought up an interesting point. He and I are mostly vegetarians, although we do eat fish (not goldfish, please note). We don�t really consider the conditions in which the fish we eat are raised, although I hope that it is humane (which doesn�t seem like the right word to use--maybe piscane would be more appropriate). My children were also raised with the same dietary habits, although they both eat meat now, my son actually craving it. Hubby wonders if the addition of carnal matter to his diet has numbed his formerly conscientious regard for the treatment of animals. Personally, I think it is a result of adolescence and the general lack of awareness that accompanies that stage of human development, but Hubby might be right.

What do you think?

|

<~~~ * ~~~>