A woman living in the US state of Maine has had her Koi seized after she lost her court bid to keep them.
Georgette Curran, from Harpswell, had asked the Maine Supreme Judicial Court to overturn a lower court ruling that denied her a permit to keep the pondish, which she wanted to keep indoors most of the year, moving them to an outside pond in the summer. Maine considers Koi to be an invasive species.
Curran, who has been keeping fish for more than 50 years, had been given a temporary permit allowing her to keep the Koi — which she describes as her 'Prozac' — in an indoor aquarium while her court case was pending.
But the court denied her request in February and on Monday a warden and biologists with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife removed more than 40 Koi from the premises.
Curran argues that Koi are accepted just about everywhere as an aquarium trade fish, including 49 other states.
She has been trying to move them onto a list of allowed aquarium fish in the state, and is collecting signatures in an attempt to get the regulations changed.
Officials also took a Blue jay and a squirrel from the premises.
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