PETITION TARGET: New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin and Committee on Health Chair Lynn Schulman
A group of teenagers reportedly won goldfish at a Queens carnival, then flung and stomped on the fish and pulled at their fins, according to the New York Post. The cruelty reportedly happened at a school carnival in Whitestone and helped prompt a proposed ban.
Fish are living, feeling animals. They do not belong in carnival games, packed into small plastic bags and sent home with whoever happens to win. A carnival game may last only minutes, but the fish has an entire life beyond the prize booth.
New York City Council Introduction 963-2026 would ban giving live fish as prizes or offering them for a token amount through games and similar promotions. Street-event sponsors would also be required to prevent the giveaways at events they permit.
The cruelty reported at the Queens carnival was not New York’s first warning about the harm behind live-fish prizes. After the 2013 New York State Fair, hundreds of leftover goldfish needed rescue, according to WRVO Public Media. Bagged fish had reportedly been found in dumpsters and trash cans, and about half of the rescued fish did not survive the night.
The proposal would protect more than goldfish. Its definition of fish includes finfish, mollusks, crustaceans, and “all other forms of marine animal life.” The city would also create public information about caring for fish and the ecological and public health harm that can follow when live fish are dumped into waterways or sewers.
The bill was introduced June 30 and remains before the Council’s Committee on Health. Carnival games can still be fun with prizes that do not put a living being in danger.
Sign our petition urging New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin and Committee on Health Chair Lynn Schulman to help advance and pass Introduction 963-2026. Fish are not prizes. They deserve protection from being treated as disposable entertainment.
