A Fish is Still A Pet

The RSPCA have warned the public about a “concerning” trend of so-called “bullycats”, urging people to avoid buying one. Experts said the public should not get a breed of hairless Sphynx-like cats as they are likely to suffer serious health issues. The RSPCA warned these “exaggerated” Sphynx cats are bred with very short legs, which could put a strain on their joints, as well as “excess skin folds” which leaves them vulnerable to adverse skin conditions. The problems can cause great discomfort for the cats and could leave owners with frequent and expensive vet bills. Bullycats have attracted ‘a disturbing following’ on social media platforms in recent months, animal welfare charity Naturewatch Foundation said.

The words branded themselves across my soul.

As an adult I think he may have been joking. He payed no especial attention to any indignities fish suffered in our household but I could never forget. I saw fish in a different light after that.

Fish kept in tiny bowls, breathing their own poisons, dying by inches. Fish kept in cold tanks, casually disposed of. Fish touted as being short lived when they could outlive the better loved family dog if only they could breathe. Fish casually won and discarded in cheap plastic bags, thrown away a week later.

cats are a vector for a number of parasites and diseases including toxoplasmosis, ticks, and rabies. their saliva and claws have such a high bacterial load that an interaction with many smaller animals will prove fatal regardless of whether or not the animal is seriously injured in the initial contact (even a lick can kill reptiles and birds, a bite can easily kill small mammals). even a cat that is up to date on vaccines can shed toxoplasmosis into the environment or get heartworms (something cats are rarely protected against). cats that go outside often end up in cat fights and if you want to bum yourself out i suggest googling videos of cat bite abscess treatments.

in addition to being environmentally devastating, cats are also at significant risk of being hurt outside. there are cars, coyotes[1], foxes, antifreeze, mean people who shoot at them, traps, dangerous substances to ingest, slow and painful deaths from natural illnesses that aren’t properly addressed. outdoor cats are not as easy to monitor for health or administer care to.

our indifference to outdoor cats means that we expect to see them as part of the environment and don’t flag it as a health and safety issue for us and the cats. it means when a pet cat gets out by mistake, we don’t rush to rescue it because we think it might belong there. it’s the reason why most “lost cat” signs are a huge bummer because the cat is probably never getting home. we understand that dogs are an indoor pet and so when we see one outside by itself we act to take care of it. that doesn’t happen for cats.

it is wild to me that we have domesticated an animal such that it is relatively dependent on us to care and quality of life and then we’re like “go! be free! figure it out on your own!” and THEN we get really upset and shocked when it doesn’t come home.

Fixed your meme

I love how most people think of Venus

but Chimera cats can look much more different

EDIT: More pictures

this is an American Fantail. they’re a popular breed among older pigeon-keepers who want a ‘challenge.’ this bird is not just posing like this, it cannot move its head far from where it is in this picture. this is NOT a similar situation to Seramas (who set up to look Like That, and are overall pretty normal-looking chickens), this bird is just tragically deformed

this is a posed skeleton of an American Fantail with the breed standard drawing overlaid. i’ve seen these birds at shows. they can barely move and they jump at every noise because they cannot see what could be coming at them. they’re either skittish or completely shut down, and watching them try to get food is just heartbreaking (they have to turn sideways and swing their head down their tail to peck at their seed. i don’t know how they even manage to drink). sometimes when the try to walk to their food they nearly fall over because their tip-toes stance is what they’re like a majority of the time and their fan is heavy enough that they can barely support it with such delicate balance

the kicker is, people are fascinated by these birds. they marvel in how such a monstrosity is alive and want to try their hand at raising fantails themselves, because that’s what the experts do! these are the bird that everyone chooses to point out as a marvel of artificial selection, but anyone who has been around pigeons for any stretch of time knows that they are intelligent, social birds. they rely on nodding to communicate a large portion of their language, and guess what an American Fantail can’t do?

Story time, guys.

The first time I went to a pigeon show, I went expecting to meet other people who loved pigeons.

One of the first clubs I ran into was the American Fantail club.

And overhearing them talk about what a struggle it is to keep them in that perfect shape when nature wants to revert them back to bird shaped was horrifying.

This is how these poor little birds have to move their heads.

Here are a few video compilations of they way they move.

This is the healthiest American Fantail I have ever seen in person:

Speedy is a trainwreck of a bird, but he can lift his head, lower his tail fan, and stand flat footed, which I don’t see any of the Show Quality fantails even coming close to pulling off.

Once we trimmed his beak, he was able to eat normally.

Now look how he moves;

Here’s his intro video.

And here is how the rest of the flock reacted to him.

None of the other birds have any idea what to do or how to respond to him.

The black color is natural for a black moor goldfish, but they do often change color as they age, sometimes in response to tank conditions. In this case, the vibrancy of the color is more important to note than the color itself. The scales begin very dull and then as Monstro recovers they become vivid.

Monstro is probably suffering from either chemical burns, dropsy, or both. Fish can probably become depressed in a fish way, but it is not the reason he stopped swimming.

Dropsy is an infection of the swim bladder which helps fish float. The water changes help reduce the inflammation and aquarium salt makes it harder for bacteria to grow in the wounds while he fights off the infection.

The chemical burns are probably from living in a too-small or badly filtered tank. Goldfish produce a lot of waste including ammonia, which in large amounts can cause the burns. The water changes are again helping reduce the ammonia level and keeps the water clean while he's recovering, like how for humans with chemical burns we flood with saline.

Because of the amount of waste they produce, goldfish need 10-20 gal each absolute minimum, but still think of that as living in a bathroom as a human. Even this setup may need to grow a bit larger as monstro and it's friends age

Goldfish can live 20/30 years, humans just are Extremely Bad at caring for fish the way we do other pets. Most goldfish need a whole pond and friends to be happy. The goldfish bowl was a temporary viewing object in China to show off the fish to guests in their rooms, and was misunderstood by European visitors to be how the fish were kept all the time.

Fish (and most cold blooded animals and birds) are exempt from most animal abuse protections and retail pet stores are almost fully unregulated in their treatment of animals. Woo!

Look. I GET IT, no one wants to think they are a bad pet owner. You love your cats. You arent intentionally being awful. And you probably grew up with outdoor cats, or indoor/outdoor cats. (I did! They were feral as hell and we lived in the woods and all of them disappeared without a trace eventually. )

But, its 2021. You are responsible for learning and growing and doing your damned best by the animals in your care.

Listen- do not let your cats free roam outside. It's bad for them and it's bad for the local ecosystem.