Animal lovers beware. There is a newly popular form of animal cruelty and it is completely legal!Thanks to Chinese street vendors, live animals are being sold as key-rings! You know, the things you shove in your pocket or in your purse and never pay much attention to anyway?
The animals are permanently sealed in a plastic pouch to be hung on your key-chain. Obviously, the animals only live for a short time as they are cut off from air, food/water, or even the ability to move!
Even worse, they are very easy to get. Vendors sell them at very cheap prices.
I can't be the only one who is absolutely disgusted by this! How can someone be okay with the fact that they have a dying animal hanging from their keys? I throw my keys around and I always drop them, so I know keychains are not a safe place to hang a live animal. Hopefully more people realize what is going on so that the sale of these cruel keyrings can stop.
8 comments:
This is so upsetting. Not only is the idea of carelessly carrying around an animal on your keychain extremely insensitive, but I also find it rather disturbing? I can safely say that I'm not able to name anyone who would feel comfortable doing so, unless they're unaware of the fact that with little oxygen and no food the animal would die in only a matter of days leaving the owner of the keychain with the responsibility of throwing it away.
This is a trendy outrage!
I read this article on Perez Hilton this weekend too. It made me incredibly sad, especially because I love turtles so much!!
But here's the thing - I just spent a good fifteen minutes trying to verify this story and come up with additional photos. All of the stories I found had the same image and they all seemed to be reporting almost word for word the same information. I'm still trying to track down the original story, but I haven't been able to find the first reported source. I'm wondering if there isn't something missing here. Clearly the turtle in the photo is captured and living a terrible life, but maybe, just maybe, there isn't an actual epidemic of live animal keychains but rather one terrible photo causing lots of media outrage...I'll keep you updated...
I found what I think is the original article:
http://en.huanqiu.com/beijing/society/2011-03/634155.html
It seems pretty legitimate, but I'm still not 100% convinced. I also found reference to live goldfish keychains sold during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but have been unable to verify that 100%. What do you guys think? Are these keychains real? Does it matter that there aren't many articles because two pictures exist so it must be real...
This is inappropriate! Theses things are alive in a keychain in coloring water. People do not take care about keychains and now adding innocent animals? I am very upset about this, people are killing these poor innocent animals that need to grow and make more turtles or fish. Please China.....not the turtles.
. . . . there's something wrong with the whole idea. I've got to say though, that turtle looks incredilbly cute and I think anyone trying to buy these animals should be stuck up in their own keychains and I'll whack 'em around.
It is is terrible, however, I feel like they're only supposed to remeain keychains for a hot minute. As if to expand the pet market. I'd buy a turtle; be he in a little baggy, I'd let him go.
I agree that this is awful, but Duke makes a good point. Given some of the content of the articles on this matter that I have found, though, I am not quite sure how legitimate the whole situation is... two sources claim that there is "No need to worry as rumor has it that nothing goes to waste – the cadavers are heated in the microwave for 15 seconds and eaten while enjoying an ice cold beer," which sounds pretty ridiculous to me... so. Food for thought.
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