Uk Members Pledge Your Support For Nirah

[Saedcantas]

Many of you will know (and the rest probably should) of the plans to construct a collossal freshwater aquarium, with various areas and endless conservation possibilities, in Bedfordshire.

Animal Rights campaigners have as usual heavily influenced the local council who is now looking set to cause the whole project to fail!

I have just received this from NIRAH;

To all friends of Nirah


You may have seen the article in Beds on Sunday this weekend - if not click on:

http/195.74.109.26:2029/news/bedford/bedfordnewshome.lpf


Unless there is some uprising of public opinion in favour of Nirah project the idea will die here - if you feel strongly please write immediately to the local Press - and listen out for more news on Chiltern Radio, particularly 96.6 FM


The Editor

Beds on Sunday
22 Mill Street
Bedford

or email him at

[email protected]

AND

The Editor

Times & Citizen
13 Mill Street
Bedford

or email him at

[email protected]


or contact your local county councillor to express your concern - to
find your local councillor's address or telephone number go to:

www.bedfordshire.gov.uk
Thanks.

UK Fishkeepers and others who see the value of such a project need to voice their support and loudly! Please make your support known to the relevant people mentioned above

You can also sign the online petition here;
Online petition - NIRAH yes!


P.S: I'm sorry if this is in the wrong place, or if it's viewed as spam, I just feel this is so incredibly important to us UK fish, amphibian and reptile keepers
Lotte***

 

[babybell911]

Sounds like a good idea be good for conservation and to teach people about looking after fish

 

[sylvia]

Whereas I do see the value of such a thing going ahead, I think it's important that people also look at the reasons behind the opposition to this project.

For one, the aquarium will attract a lot of tourists and be taking up space (in terms of land). On the other hand, this should be a good thing for Bedford and the people who live there in terms of job opportunities etc. The way I see it though, it'll also be very educational - helping all those tourists learn more about aquatic life and perhaps encouraging them to take a more active interest in conservation.

I read up a bit on the 'ethical' issues animal activists have about confinement/cruelty etc. Obviously, as aquarists, it would be very hypocritical to shun confinement Though, of course, a lot of the fish may well be wild caught. Looking at statistics, the number of endangered species kept by aquariums is low - you can either view this as a positive thing because the endangered fish are still out there or negatively - my viewpoint - because it means that, in terms of conservation, they aren't doing much. However, I think conservation is closely linked to education - so even if the number of endangered species is a big zero, the experience people have may make them mroe sympathetic towards all struggling species.

Now the final issue that seems to come up most is that the aquarium will also be using aquatic and semi-aquatic animals for tests. As long as they are not endangered and the funding for such things is used responsibly so that the research can actualy be useful, I don't a have a problem with this (though I'd rather it were not necessary). The thing is, there's not much information out there about exactly what they might be doing - what sort of 'tests' are they talking about and just how stressful/painful will it be for the animals? Will the research actualy be of any use to anyone? These things do bother me and I can't support a project like this with complete certainty.

However, I will probably support the Nirah project simply because the conservation/education benefits will very likely outweight the cons.

edit: Can I just ask, who wrote the

To: MP's and Animal rights activists...

bit? Well not that I care who wrote it but I was wondering whether there's any way to get them to correct various spelling/grammatical mistakes so that people can take the pettition more seriously? I personaly don't care about the mistakes - the information is sound - but someone stumbling across this from the web may well decide it's not serious. Just to emphasise - I'm not trying to put anyone down, my spelling's not perfect either lol