June 4, 2008
Beijing Olympic key chain souvenir cruel to fish?
Amelia of ChinaTravel.net draws our attention to this Beijing Olympic keychain souvenir with a live fish in it:
I found this picture up at the Beijing Olympics Fan blog and was shocked out of my wits!!! Who would ever buy this??? In 4 hours the fish would be dead, how do you explain that to your 6 year old daughter? I saw some guys selling these on the subway recently, they were claiming that the water was treated with food and chemicals that would allow the fish to live for months. BULLCRAP!Obviously, the guys from the RSPCA are not amused and told the Telegraph:
“The fish would have little oxygen available and it would be impossible to feed the fish.The first question that comes to mind now is: Is this really an official Beijing Olympics merchandise item?“The fish would survive just a few hours, and would be lucky to make it from the manufacturers to the point of sale.
“This product shows a shocking lack of respect for a living thing and should be withdrawn from sale.
“We are shocked and appalled. It is a gimmick and shows no respect for the animals at all.
“We can’t understand why anyone would want to buy such a thing.”
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I think it is fake. No olympic official would allow something like that.
In my eyes it's cruel, too. Poor fish, no chance. But I bet, chinese will buy stuff like that. I've seen them before w/o olympic branding.
What I'd like to know is, how the ratio between official olympic stuff and fake stuff in china is. Would be also interesting to compare that number to former olympic events.
Well, that's one unlicensed Olympic product that I won't add to my collection of counterfeits.
What's next, your very own souvenir Olympic Sichuan orphan????
All living things must make sacrifices for the glory of China!
This is definitely non-official stuff. Why we always mislead people to hate Chinese government?
Sarebarbazoo, I don't think anyone really believes the government or the BOCOC is behind this thing.
Who would buy it? Primarily the same people who are interested in a moment's gratification and who don't care about anything else. There are adults like that in the world, but I suspect the main market is children with ignorant parents in tow. The children are ignorant by nature, so I forgive them. The parents buy it because they have remained ignorant past childhood about something that they should, by now, understand. I have no sympathy for them.
Finally some innovation and originality from the natives.
Where can I buy one?
Are you people nuts? It's a FISH FOR PETE'S SAKE. I often see children playing with toy robots whose brains are made of silicon. Are you really so bigoted to claim there is a fundamental difference between silicon based life and hydrogen based? Give me a break. It's a ROBOT but made with organic based parts instead of metal.