So, that happened.
Here in Seattle, Fremont bar Woodsky’s has no plans to discontinue their Tuesday night goldfish races, according to owner Greg. The races have been going on for two years—”We started it in Washington,” Greg says—since back when Woodsky’s was called Sinners and Saints.
Greg says a single goldfish-race protester has showed up at Woodsky’s; according to him, she flipped the goldfish racetrack over, emptying the water and two fish on the floor. The fish subsequently perished. Greg did not think this was a very effective way to protest cruelty to goldfish; he alleges that on her Facebook, the protester blamed the two goldfish deaths on “someone bumping the track.” At this writing, I cannot locate the Facebook account in question, only this.
I refuse to call PETA for comment.
Thanks, Josh Bomb!
This is so fucking stupid.
If you support PETA, please kill yourself in real life.
Sort of like the PETA protesters who release caged minks into the wild, where they are all immediately eaten by predators. Saved!
PETA sucks. Period:
I suspect the feeder goldfish used in the races probably last longer in the tank at Woodsky’s than they do in a pet store.
My college BF was the sweetest. Once we were in a pet store and I asked the clerk…” what kind of fish are those”? When she said feeder fish I didn’t know what that meant.BF explained it to me and I balled all night.
The next day after class I found all 60 something fish in my dorm room:)
bawled…I am an idiot.
@ 5, you balled all night? You must have been popular with all the guys.
Oh, wait, you probably meant “bawled.”
everytime I read about PETA in the news, I eat some yummy meat!
Anyone who donates money to PETA is a moron. Go to petfinder.com, get a list of animal shelters by state and donate your hard earned money to a shelter nearby, so you can see with your own eyes, the animals you would save.
PETA is the scientology equivalent of pet shelters.
How is a goldfish race different than a goldfish in a tank? Do you think they’re aware they’re at a sporting event for which they’re not being compensated?
If you know anyone selling fast gold fish, I’m in the market.
They were feeder fish and gonna die anyway, so that makes drunkenly swallowing them in bars okay. Just like adopting dogs from shelters and killing them in dogfighting rings, adopting cats from shelters and blowing them up with firecrackers, right?
If you have absolutely no morality (like BJC), please defer to people who do.
Well, gold is at $1,500 an ounce now. I’d think gold fish would be too valuable to kill.
Ba-da-boom.
@10,
PETA opposes keeping any animals as pets.
@14 Seriously? I guess I’m not up on my Peta trivia…but our doggie wuuuves us! Twuely wuves us (that’s how you have to talk to him, or he cries.)
5280 Oh. My. God. That will require a shot, asap.
@12: What the fuck is wrong with you?
There’s nothing said about people EATING goldfish you illiterate twat. RACING them – with some food and divider bars, not eating, you idiot – The Goldfish in that facebook link is referring to the crackers.
And feeder goldfish are fed to reptiles and carnivorous fish (though one shouldn’t feed goldfish to reptiles, they have toxins that can make them sick). Are you suggesting they should go vegan?
I’m way ahead of you, Canuck. You’ve got some catching up to do.
Oh, and as long as I’m still here . . .
I know “retard” is off-limits, but can I still call @12 a cretin? Because that’s the dumbest motherfucker I’ve run across here in a long, long time. And that’s saying something.
I went to the facebook page and I think this is all fake.
@14: No pets? That’s evil.
Trixie, my wonderful dog, says “Fuck PETA!”
I fear I will always be catching up to you, 5280…the only people I could out-drink in college were first year lacrosse players, and everyone knows they’re pussies.
@ 7 BOTH, actually.
#16- Read the article.
#18- A wonderful compliment coming from a birther Mexican-hating gun nut.
“I refuse to call PETA for comment.”
Because that would be fact checking. Some of us get paid to give blowjobs to local eateries, and that means you print what the restaurants tell you, not a bunch of “facts” that you “checked”. Fact checking is for trust funders and bloggers with day jobs. BJC got bills to pay.
If the restaurateur says it’s local, organic and sustainable, that’s good enough. If they say kobe beef you print kobe beef. That shit becomes fact and you print that shit. Right next to their ad.
@18, cretin is good, and underused.
goldfish are for shooting. in a shot glass. with booze in the glass. or maybe I’m thinking of minnows, can’t remember.
As long as they’re not cockroach racing, fine by me.
I think drinking goldfish is pretty cruel, nothing deserves to die by being digested alive. The linked article made it seem like this is a fairly rare occurrence. Goldfish are actually much more intelligent then people think, there have been numerous studies showing this, so I think this could be viewed as cruel, but no more cruel then most things we do to animals. These are feeder goldfish, and I would rather be raced down a track then eaten.
(On that note, feeding live prey to your pets is a bad idea, often causes complications, and death, because your domesticated animal doesn’t know how to do it properly)
Yeah, you “refuse to call PETA for comment” because they might try to convince you you’re wrong. God forbid you are forced to question your own beliefs, right? That’s not what ‘merica is about!
Remember: PETA wanted to call fish “sea kittens.” And that was supposed to make us not want to eat fish.
Fucking idiots.
And I shall celebrate the lives these poor goldfish gave for PETA’s innate stupidity by having an extra helping of whale sashimi tomorrow night, when my little local izakaya gets in a nice new big fat cut of yummy kujira. Delish!
Most fish will eat their own young. Come on. No wonder PETA doesn’t get taken seriously. They’re a foolish organization run by silly people.
PETA definitely seems more concerned about helping PETA than about helping animals a lot of the times. Kudos to you, Bethany Jean, for taking a principled stance and not allowing them to get more media attention by contacting them for comment. Now if you can just stop writing about these antics on a regular basis for post hits, snark or no snark, you may actually have better luck in denying them the publicity, good or bad, that they so desperately crave. Maybe without PETA controlling the vegan narrative we can get some positive attention.
At this point, PETA serves no purpose in the world excep to function as ammor for conservatives criticism of liberals.
But you know what? At least liberal extremists are estremists for the benefit of the powerless!
In all seriousness, though, PETA does need to fuck off.
@34… Interesting comment but the mistaken assumption is that Clement or the Stranger are in any way interested in promoting positive views of vegetarians/vegans. Clement isn’t… restaurant ad revenues is part of it, but Clement will never acknowledge any shred of substantive legitimacy of veggie/vegan concerns…. thus in Slog world all vegans are sanctimonious PETA freaks who are naive, pompous, privileged, hypocritical, etc. etc. It distracts from the actual issues.
@28, ever watch a great blue heron eat his lunch?