A bar in Tacoma, Washington, has stopped its weekly goldfish races, after floods of complaints.
The Harmon Tap Room featured the races on Tuesday nights until recently. The goldfish – 10 cent 'feeder' fish – would race along two 8ft long troughs filled with water, 'helped along' towards the finish line with the aid of squirty bottles and drinking straws (see picture above).
Bartender Joel Cumming told mynorthwest.com that he thought the protests from animal rights group PETA may have started after a video was posted on the Harmon Tap Room's Facebook page of the races, which also shows one of the goldfish jumping out of a trough and landing on the floor.
"We took care of them when they weren't racing," he said. "Occasionally they would pass away."
PETA says it's not just the troughs and methods of propulsion that are cruel in these sorts of races, which are held by a number of bars and restaurants in the USA. "Making matters worse are reports that drunken patrons have impaled some fish with cocktail straws and have swallowed others alive."
According to a further report at mynorthwest.com, Harmon Tap Room now intends to hold turtle races instead, with all the turtles in the middle of a large circle – the first one out of the circle wins...