a. The vast majority of under 16's live with their parents, i.e. under someone else's roof, and thus i believe that you should abide by their rules.
Very true, but unless you are unlucky enough to share a room with a sibling (and haven't got around to selling them off as a chimmney sweep yet), your bedroom is still your space whether it's in a house owned by you or not. You get to choose your own decorating scheme, your own furniture (generally), whatever other objects you keep in your room (ie,TVs video players etc) generally as long as you buy it.
b. Owning pets can be very difficulty when trying to move out of home- as i have noted before, i know people even on this forum who are unable to move out of home because the majority of landlords do not accept animals, and few will accept something like 6 fish tanks or a load of cats and other animals etc.
Thus i think the best time to get a pet is when you have found somewhere to rent that will allow to have pets- even so though, renting a place may not be permanent and you may still have to move out at some point and have to find another place all over again that will accept you and your animals.
Yes, but that situation applies to everyone, regardless of age. So really that isn't a valid arguement IMO.
c. Thirdly, many Uni's do not accept any animals at all. Some of the fish i currently own originally belonged to a friend of mine who had to give them up because he wanted to go to Uni and could not take his fish with him. If any of you decide to further your education after you leave school or college, what will you do if no Uni will accept your fish? Where will your fish go?
As above really- just because the fish might have to find a different home if you decide to go to uni, why should that mean that you aren't allowed to have any pets of your own? The situation could still well apply to adult, who probably have mroe fish, tanks etc- what about where
their fish will go if they move house and can't take them with them? When/if I'm in that situation, any I can take will come with me. The rest will have no shortage of homes to go to, I'm sure- fully grown oddballs and rare catfish aren't often left unwanted, even if it does mean a bit of traveling.
d. It is quite difficult for under 16's to get proper work/jobs to pay fr their hobby- thus most under 16's rely heavily on their parents financially supporting their hobby. Thus i think it is only fair if you take your parent to the lfs to see what exactly you are wanting them to buy.
But most under 16's rely on their parents for everything. Anything they want to buy, you could argue, comes out of their parents pocket in some way, unless they have a job, but generally those who use their pocket money on hobbies like fish spend far less on other rubbish teenagers buy, like cigarettes, drugs, alcohol, CD's, sweets etc. It actually is very beneficial IMO to have to save up for things like that you want or need- you are less likely to buy things you don't need or want when you are older and have an income of your own. I personally now buy any food I want when I go out shopping, so if I want something decent to eat instead of the frozen rubbish my mum normally buys I've paid for it out of my own pocket.
e. Many of us make mistakes when we start out in the hobby, and one of the most common newbie mistakes is buying unsuitable fish, in particular tank-busting ones. Many people, by the time they have found out what horrors or sizes their fish will grow into, have already become too emotionally attached to their fish to take them back to the shop.
But this doesn't apply to the arguement at all. Are you saying under 16's should be able to buy fish on their own in case they buy, say, a RTC? Rubbish. How the hell are parents supposed to know or care how big a fish grows? Adults are probably more likely to buy tankbusters anyway, kids who buy their own fish are unlikely to spend their hard saved cash on a fish they know nothing about.
f. Many under 16's live and abide by their parents rules. But what if you come across the scenario where your parents want to go on a 5 week holiday and are taking you with them? Who looks after your fish? What will happen to them? At least when you are an adult and living independantly, you can choose your own holidays according to what fits your lifestyle best.
What about if the said independant adult wants to go on a 5 week holiday? Not many people are gonig to deny themselves breaks becasue of their fish. It's plenty easy to find people to look after them- plenty of nitrate absorbing stuff around if ned be, or if not, only two or so water changes are nessecary, there are automatic feeders, gadgets that make water changes easier if need be... It's not rocket science.
The law is there to protect the fish, and i think that given the above factors to take into consideration, this is a very reasonable law and does help protect many fish from doomed fates.
That is 100% not true. If anything, the law is there to protect all the fluffy animals- the law doesn't give a damn about fish. If it did, dying fish would have been made illegal aeons ago, laws would be put into place to stop cruelty like goldfish in bowls, the RSPCA wouldn't write such utter tosh in it's books like it did about the stocking of a 20g. The point still stands- how many shops, if it is put into place, are going to take the blindest bit of notice?
