How pathetic can one person be?

[Neesmo]

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/arti...-fish-die?bn=1

Ashamed to breath the same air as a person like that

Kyle

[baos]

The Ontario Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said the case would not fall under animal cruelty because fish are non-vertebrates.


WTF??? did someone fail science class??? FISH DEFINITELY HAVE A SKELETON!

I'm ashamed at the stupidity of our own government

[Neesmo]

There has been a correcting by the OSPCA. They told the news people that they are to print a retraction and that they ARE covered by the OSPCA under cruelty to animals and they will be helping with the investigation if asked.
Simple misunderstanding from the sound of it

Kyle

[baos]

sounds like the OSPCA has no idea which animals are covered by animal cruelty. You think it would be common knowledge at their office.

[Neesmo]

Originally Posted by BCAquaria member "NegativeLogic"

I thought the statement about fishing not being vertebrate was ridiculous, so I sent the OSPCA an email.

Here's what I got back:

Thank you for your email Chris,

This was in fact an error, and miss communication was sent to the Star. We have spoken with the Star and they have corrected the article online; below you will find the letter to the editor just recently sent to the paper.

Toronto Star

Letter to the Editor

Friday March 5, 2010

Re: Store owners suspect vandal after hundreds of fish die

Dear Editor,

The Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals would like to correct wrong information it provided to The Toronto Star for the article, “Store owners suspect vandal after hundreds of fish die.” According to the Ontario SPCA Act, which establishes basic standards for animal welfare in the province, an animal is defined as a “non humane vertebrae”; fish are vertebrae species, and therefore protected under the Act.

The Ontario SPCA is taking the incident at the exotic-fish store very seriously and is available to assist the police and the store owners in the investigation. Neither has requested assistance at this point in time.

Anyone causing distress to a fish, not including those that conduct activities that are exempted under the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act, could be charged with animal cruelty under the Ontario SPCA Act. The penalties for convicted offenders under the Act are: a lifetime ban of ownership of an animal, a maximum $60,000 fine, and up to two years in jail.

We sincerely apologize for this unfortunate and unintentional error reported in the Star’s story.

Thank you again Chris, for voicing your concerns.

Best regards,

Alison Cross

Manager, Marketing & Communications

Ontario SPCA, Provincial Office

This is the message I was speaking of

[Azaria]

Interesting that the owners of the pet store mentioned that hteir money was going down the drain - but no mention of the fish lives lost. Obviously things can get skewed in a paper but you'd think there might be some mention of sadness for the poor fish =(

[EvolutionAquarium]

It's called "new tank syndrone" or better said, uncycled biological filtration! Same thing happened half a year or so ago, if you'll remember, to another newly opened store in Toronto. About 20 years ago when Allan Soul (Al of bigals) opened his 2nd corporate store, they had a giant, newly set up, over stocked reef tank crash. "It was poisoned!" they said. Ammonia poisoning!

The zoo and their sting rays! Pool was set up for a little less than 6 months and the pH kept crashing in that 6 months. How is a biological filter expected to become established in 6 months when the pH keeps crashing? Videos showed ammonia bubble on the surface of the water. New Tank Syndrone

Toronto's pH out of the tap is 7.2ish, not as bad as BCs <5 but it still needs to be continously buffered.

So here we have 4 guys who claim to be pros and have a "central system, which filters and heats 400 tanks holding more than 5,000 fish." included in this system are "hundreds of fish, including small sharks and rare shrimp" and "the store’s most expensive fish and 200 pieces of rare coral. Small bamboo sharks, lion fish and hundreds of rare shrimps were among the 700 exotic fish killed, along with endangered corals imported from Australia, Indonesia, Singapore and the Caribbean."

Please! These guys are newbs! What pro keeps sharks, hundreds of fish and corals in the same system? Especially a system that is only 6 months old?!

The bleach smell?

AMMONIA!!

Over night pH crash and that system failed.

That is what happened.