Flushing Nemo
Fish flushing children must stop now!The argument that all movies should be banned has gained weight today with the news that, since the release of Finding Nemo Stateside, kiddy audiences have gone home to murder their fish.
Okay so it might be more of a liberation attempt than murder, but there's no denying the carnage in toilet bowls around the country as children, spurred on by Pixar's animated story, have chosen to let their fish go back into the wild by flushing them down the toilet.
In the movie, a fish called Nemo is separated form his Dad and winds up in a dentist's office.
Nemo escapes by jumping down a spit bowl, thus giving kids the idea that they ought to do exactly the same thing when they get home.
But now concerned environmental organisations are working hard to stop a similar slaughter of fish by urging parents not to allow their children to join in the mass slaughter. They insist that parents need to educate children by informing them which fish genuinely are in danger and what to do to help.
Paul Holthus, president of the Marine Aquarium Council (MAC), a non-profit marine conservation group based in Hawaii said: "Finding Nemo is a very engaging film, and parents who already have aquariums need to explain to their children that the fish will not survive if they are flushed."
Alexander Gould, the 9-yr-old who provides the voice of Nemo, also made his concerns very clear: "It is okay to keep some types of fish if you know how to look after them. The Marine Aquarium Council makes sure aquarium fish are captured in a kind manner. It does this to protect the coral reefs, because if the coral is gone, the fish will be gone. The whole world depends on coral and fish, and they depend on each other."
According to a report, over 20 million tropical fish, including 1471 species ranging from the sapphire devil to the copperhead butterflyfish, are being harvested annually to supply the booming marine aquarium trade in Europe and the United States.
So it's simple, ban the film or stop the kids from touching the fish. Either way, this madness has got to stop.
