Time to email your MP?
A fishkeeper is encouraging others in the fishkeeping community to email their MP to complain about the ongoing sale of dyed fish.
It's nice to see that I am not alone in objecting to the sale of dyed fish. None of the other magazines seem to be saying much about this, which probably makes me look like a bit of an animal rights nutter. So I'm delighted to see that some of you have also been doing your bit to try and curb the trade in these fish.
Following the publication of my news story last month, which announced that Defra had confirmed to me that the forthcoming Animal Welfare Bill would not be making it illegal to sell dyed fish that were mutilated overseas, one clever forum member at Tropical Fish Forums devised a cunning plan.
"Arfie" suggested that all of the forum members there write a letter to their MP, outlining the problem.
Arfie knocked up a letter that the other forum members could use and posted a link to a service that allows you to find the contact details for your local MP.
A small flood of forum members sent the letter to their MP, with some of them receiving replies within a week or so.
Is it too late?
Unfortunately, as I mentioned to Arfie at the weekend, the Animal Welfare Bill had it's final hearing the in the Commons last Tuesday, so it's unlikely that the new Bill will include a ban on dyed fish, despite everyone's best efforts.However, that's no reason to give up with the campaigning.
Although Defra confirmed to Practical Fishkeeping that it would be illegal to tattoo or inject fish with dye in the UK, a loophole in the new Bill means that shops can still legally sell them, as they're all produced in the Far East.
The dim light at the end of the tunnel is that the new Bill, flawed or not, does at least have the advantage that new legislation can be pushed through later. Defra suggested that this might be the place to discuss a possible ban on the sale of dyed fish.
So, if you're wondering what you can do to help put an end to this mistreatment of fishes, why not follow Arfie's lead and complain to your MP?
It has to be worth a try.
Matt Clarke: Thu March 16, 2006, 10:54 amViews: This entry has been read 3,635 times.
5 comments on: Time to email your MP?
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"Many thanks to Matt for highlighting the campaign on the forums.
The whole thing was inspired by Matt's own article here and was brought to my attention by Anita on UK-Aquarist forum and the idea was born and developed here.
I'd urge everyone who cares about the issue to spend five minutes to send your MP a letter or email, if you can do it better than my example (hardly an achievement) please do so, or use one of your own, but just do it.
The laws can only be changed by our MPs and to be fair to them, unless they are fish keepers themselves it is an issue they are unlikely to be aware of, if every MP in the country gets 5 or 10 letters it will become more widely known within parliament and maybe, just maybe, it will get through further legislation.
Please don't assume that your MP knows and even if they do, tell them again anyway, they need to be made aware that the public (voters) want something done.
Also if you are a member on a fish forum where this hasn't been posted, please do it (make sure it hasn't been done before though), use the template or make a better one, it doesn't matter, just get the word around.
Once again, thanks go to Matt (the loopy animal rights activist) for bringing this to our attention and keeping it there."
Date: Thursday March 16th, 2006, 12:55 pm
"its only a stupid loophole that allows them to be sold here in the first place. if you cant dye them here, why should you be able to buy them at all.
if enough people make a fuss, they will have to do something about it. but it needs to be more than just stopping them being imported and sold, need to encourage the fish farmers in other countries to supply fish that we do want to keep rather than the mutiliated versions -just nice healthy fish would be good!"
Date: Friday March 17th, 2006, 2:49 pm
"I used Arfie's template to send an email to my Local MP. Within 2 days I recieved a written letter from the local secretary who has informed me that although my local MP is not currently available, she has passed my concerns directly onto MP Ben Bradshaw who is the secretary for Local Environment, Marine and Animal Welfare.
Hopefully even if cannot be attached to the current bill, they will see it as important enough to pass through another bill banning the sale of dyed fish, or even better any fish mutilated or harmed before being sold in the UK."
Date: Sunday March 19th, 2006, 12:21 am
"I really must reiterate the fact that contacting local MPs is great, however it's the education of the buying public that's needed! If people didn't buy them in the first place then import numbers would drop. I'm sure that many buyers don't even know much about the dying process! Education is the way forward."
Posted by: James Annis - 3 years, 8 months agoDate: Friday March 24th, 2006, 3:37 am
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Comments feed | Editor-in-Chief, Matt Clarke, writes the regular Interesting Imports column on rare and unusual fish in the UK aquarium trade. He's kept fish for 30 years and holds a degree, two higher degrees and two diplomas in fish biology, taxonomy and computational biology. |
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"I sent my MP a copy of Arfie's letter still have had no reply! I think it is great that he started this thread as I was shocked to find out how many fish are being injected with! I just hope more and more people follow this example to try and stop this sort of cruelty and go on to ban these fish from being sold in the UK! "
Posted by: Julie Hainsworth - 3 years, 8 months agoDate: Thursday March 16th, 2006, 12:44 pm