Two Victims Of Senseless Violence

[RandomWiktor]

So, I went to Petco to pick up supplies for my baby hissers, and as always, checked out the bettas. I was surprised that, considering only the "leftovers" remained, they were in such good health; my Petco generally... sucks when it comes to bettas. Glad I wouldn't be adding to my (over)load of bettas, I was about to head for the checkout when something caught my eye. Way down on the bottom of the push cart holding all of the bettas, mixed in with reptile supplies, were two cups with bettas in them. On closer inspection, I saw something "fishy" - the CT was not in a CT labeled cup, and the VT was swimming around in a big pile of fins that weren't his color. I picked up both cups and found that both males had extensive fin damage, considerable body damage, and classical bites all over their faces. Sure enough, some jerk probably put them together to fight, and either an employee or a kind passer-by split them up. The CT is considerably worse off, having a lot of body damage and missing much of his fins (which are in the VT's cup). The VT has a lot of face and tail damage, but nothing as bloody and open as the other male.
I can't believe there are people out there sick enough to pit two fish one another in a battle that could end in death just for kicks. Especially now, with research on the books proving that yeah, fish do feel pain. And to do it to two poor pet store fish, unconditioned for that kind of exhertion, stuck in a tiny cup where they can't properly escape or submit.... ungh. I mentioned what I found to the manager, and he said it was "pretty common" for kids to come in and put them together; the employees find the wounded and dead at least once a week. Methinks its time to uh... start watching the fricken fish?!
As I type, they're acclimating in 2.5g hospital tanks. They're very pale and stressed, so wish them luck everyone!

 

[lisie]

Gah. People are such complete and utter jerks. <_<

Good luck with the little guys. I hope they make it. *crosses fingers*

 

[ilovejack]

Some people have to compassion for other living beings. I hate hearing about people fighting bettas, or mistreating them in any way . Well good for you for rescuing those poor helpless fish. I dont understand why people think fighting bettas and leaving them for dead is fun, and they obviously have no ethics. Anyways, good luck with getting them back to full health !!!And shame on the employees for taking such a lax attitude with this issue!

-E

 

[RandomWiktor]

Well, they made the acclimation well. I really fancied up the hospital tanks since I'm thinking they'll be there for a while - caves, silk plants, gravel, the whole 9 yards. They're both very pale and lethargic, and the CT looks like he is in pain when he moves. However, they're not panting or freaking out like they were in the cups, so that's an improvement.

 

[Dragonscales]

If that was my store and I caught kids doing that I'd grab em by the ear and toss them out on their arses. If they had something to say about it I'd whoop their backsides all the way home and tell their parents to teach the little idiots how civilised people are supposed to behave. If the parents had something to say then I'd whoop their arses too for bringing up mongrel kids.

 

[Naughtygirlrlw]

Good luck to the newbies, and good on you for taking them in.
Hopefully they will come out of this fins flying high.

 

[fish_fetish65]

better hope i NEVER catch ANYONE at the lfs i work at doing that... rules or no rules, i will beat the tar out of that person to show him how it feels! i would get fired for doing so, of course, but that would push me beyond the caring limit lol.

 

[Wisperian]

This is SO going to end up in one of those should we fight bettas threads. Anyways, a lot of people fight bettas because that's basically all they're known for. TBH, that's what I knew bettas for. I didn't know they could flare or w.e until I started doing research. Sometimes, you can't really blame these people for fighting them because they just dont know which specific bettas are bred for fighting and which are the fancy ones that are just eye candy for betta lovers. And just a side note, please stop saying all this stuff about beating the **** out of whoever wants to fight bettas together or anything because its not like you people haven't done anything stupid or thoughtless in your life before. Beating people up is just like fighting bettas doesn't really make you any better.

 

[RandomWiktor]

This isn't "betta fighting" though, not in the way it is traditionally carried out. I'm sure half of the people who actually do fight bettas would be equally appaled, because these fish were not carefully bred and conditioned to survive a fight. The only way this could become a "should we fight bettas" thread would be if someone had the audacity to say it is perfectly fine to fight strains simply not physically fit to perform, and I strongly doubt anyone will say that.
This is just a case of someone finding it amusing to injure two animals. I'm sorry, but wether it is what they are "known for" or not does not make cruel behavior acceptable. Anyone with a lick of common sense knows fighting leads to injuries, and injuries lead to pain. Is there any reason other than malice to inflict harm on two hapless fish in the pet store?
I do agree that it is annoying that people are doing the whole "umg betta fighting is bad so let's beat someone up" thing though. What the guilty party needed, depending on his/her disposition during a would-be confrontation, are some stern educational words, or a ban from the store.

At any rate, I'm going to ask that this be locked, because it seems you can't post a single bloody thread on this board anymore without it turning into some kind of conflict. So don't worry guys, no one will have to deal with the minor discomfort of people expressing their beliefs on betta fighting. If anyone wants to know how the rescued fish do - because wow, they WERE the topic - PM me.

 

[babybell911]

This is SO going to end up in one of those should we fight bettas threads. Anyways, a lot of people fight bettas because that's basically all they're known for. TBH, that's what I knew bettas for. I didn't know they could flare or w.e until I started doing research. Sometimes, you can't really blame these people for fighting them because they just dont know which specific bettas are bred for fighting and which are the fancy ones that are just eye candy for betta lovers. And just a side note, please stop saying all this stuff about beating the **** out of whoever wants to fight bettas together or anything because its not like you people haven't done anything stupid or thoughtless in your life before. Beating people up is just like fighting bettas doesn't really make you any better.

Fightin bettas and throwing two in the same cup in a pet store are not really the same thing. The latter being a crime I would gladly beat people up for!

 

[BWBettas]

That's horrible, i know some people who fight bettas and they spend weeks and weeks specially conditioning them so THEY DONT get hurt they probably care about there fish more than some of us do

Bret

 

[diane45]

awww the poor guys, sending out healing thoughts to them. Their lucky u found them as we know what would have happened to them if you didn't.

 

[lisie]

This is SO going to end up in one of those should we fight bettas threads. Anyways, a lot of people fight bettas because that's basically all they're known for. TBH, that's what I knew bettas for. I didn't know they could flare or w.e until I started doing research. Sometimes, you can't really blame these people for fighting them because they just dont know which specific bettas are bred for fighting and which are the fancy ones that are just eye candy for betta lovers. And just a side note, please stop saying all this stuff about beating the **** out of whoever wants to fight bettas together or anything because its not like you people haven't done anything stupid or thoughtless in your life before. Beating people up is just like fighting bettas doesn't really make you any better.

Uhm... sorry but that really didn't make any sense whatsoever. Putting two bettas that are probably half-dead anyway in the same cup, knowing that at least one of them will probably be beaten to death is ridiculous and heartless. They don't care about the fish, or that it's a living thing that can feel pain. They're just idiots who get their kicks out of watching other things be in pain. Those are the kind of kids that wind up thrown in jail when they get old enough to move on to humans instead of helpless pet store animals.

If someone wants to fight bettas and is responsible, they will read up on it. It's an animal's life we're talking about here, not just something disposable made for you to laugh at while it's slowly beaten to death. Betta fighting isn't ever supposed to result in the death of either fish, because it isn't allowed to go that far. When the winner is apparent, they're both removed and medicated. Not to mention that they don't have long flowing fins to get torn off. Do you not see the difference between that and dropping two veiltails together in a tiny cup, laughing at it for a few minutes and then walking away, leaving both of them most likely for dead?

Now that this topic has been completely made into something that is was not intended as, which is very unfair to RW, can we please just get back on topic? If you want to keep up this discussion, feel free to make yet another betta fighting topic that will most likely be closed...

 

[Rediahs]

That's not "fighting bettas", it's "killing bettas".

 

[furryrabbit]

good luck ickle fishies!