Ever play the nightmarket goldfish catch game… where you use the tissue nets to catch as many fish as you can before it rips? Do you think this is an act of cruelty or not? What if feeder guppies were used?
I’am asking because I’m considering if this whole escapade is doable for the Passport To Taiwan event in NYC next month. I have feeder guppies in my pond and I love them so I guess on afterthought I’m a bit perplexed. Am I over-reacting? What do you think?
I was pretty much shocked when I first saw it. But I also think I am overreacting on this matter.
When you see the number of dead ones they throw away at the end of the night – big bags full down at Bitan, where there are a lot of such “games”, you might indeed think its cruel. Its the stress that kills them. I think if you did that in NYC you’d quickly get some adverse publicity.
I have seen this game around the world and even in my childhood in the USA.
Right now the boy has 8 - 10 of these ‘Prize Winners’ swimming about in his 2 aquariums. Its teaching him about fish, that he has responsibilities and where sushi comes from - OK, the last one was a joke.
In a years time, he has only had 1 fish die. Pretty good I think.
I guess it depends on how the child is taught to deal with this.
I’ve let my kids play this game in the markets, then we put the fish back in. But the last time I tried this with them at the Zoo Mall, there were lots of fish and they swimming every which way trying to escape all the kids coming after them with the nets. By then we’d become Nemo fans and I kept imagining the crill saying, “Swim away! Swim away!”
And all the kids saying “mine, mine, mine, mine, mine.” 
Yeah I wonder. The college nightmarkets use feeder guppies (which are food technically).
I would NEVER allow my children to be a part of this disgusting game.
[quote=“ShrimpCrackers”]Yeah I wonder. The college nightmarkets use feeder guppies (which are food technically).
[/quote]
So thats where NEMO went!
MMmmmm…[i]sushi[/i]…
If we have to wonder if it’s cruel, then it probably is.
I agree that having pet fish can be very educational for a child, and not too harmful for the fish, but the lessons all go out the window if the child takes part in a game to get them, a game where hundreds of his quarries die every day.
Just a fish? Well, we should be careful about that, just in case there are higher forms of intelligence out there that want to play similar games with us. 
[quote=“Stray Dog”]If we have to wonder if it’s cruel, then it probably is.
I agree that having pet fish can be very educational for a child, and not too harmful for the fish, but the lessons all go out the window if the child takes part in a game to get them, a game where hundreds of his quarries die every day.
Just a fish? Well, we should be careful about that, just in case there are higher forms of intelligence out there that want to play similar games with us. [/quote]
You know, honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if entire planets filled with mildly intelligent creatures (like Earth) were scooped up or destroyed on the whims of more advanced races like Vogons. Especially for a hyperspace bypass.
So yeah, makes you wonder. I’m going to help out for Passport 2 Taiwan NYC this year so I’ll take pictures and put them up. Alot of people bring their pets too so I’ll have that.
I think the hard part is making the breakable nets to make the game authentic.
[quote=“Stray Dog”]If we have to wonder if it’s cruel, then it probably is.
I agree that having pet fish can be very educational for a child, and not too harmful for the fish, but the lessons all go out the window if the child takes part in a game to get them, a game where hundreds of his quarries die every day.
Just a fish? Well, we should be careful about that, just in case there are higher forms of intelligence out there that want to play similar games with us. [/quote]
I agree. Embarassed to say it took a few tries before I realized how awful it was. So what did you come up with for the event?
Actually Ac we now have special plastic frames and tissues exactly for this purpose. We’ve been using plastic toy fish in the past and giving prizes in liu, but since we haven’t found any realistic floating fish the whole thing looked rather like a very cheap immitation.
I just think it would be better to think of something else to do. It doesn’t really matter if it IS actually cruel or not (although I’m pretty sure it is, as it is certainly stressful for the fish) but about how it is preceived by the visitors to the event. The US tends to be much more attuned than Taiwan to the idea of animal suffering, so it seems to me that you’d want to avoid things that would just add to the Chinese cultural stereotypes.
I agree with Sandman.
How about instead of a game, you have a bunch of those Chinese toys, the way my kid says the name of this thing sounds like “tuh-ling” 
Teach people how to play with them, and demonstrate a few tricks, then sell the toys themselves.
My 7 year old loves this thing and is pretty good with it. Two sticks, string connecting them, then there’s a big piece that you balance on the string… anybody know what I’m talking about?
Or those giant spinning tops. They’re cool – you can knock people over with the really big ones.