I guess a lot of you have seen this. What do you reckon?

Swiss legislation to affect aquarium hobby | Practical Fishkeeping magazine

"New animal protection legislation is to come into effect in Switzerland from 1st September 2008.

Fish are to be protected under the new legislation for the first time, following the Swiss government’s acceptance of studies showing that, like other animals, fish do suffer."

and

"Under the new legislation, aquariums in Switzerland must not be transparent on all sides, and minimum aquarium and pond size restrictions will be put in place for any fish over the size of 20cm."

My opinion is that it can be nothing but a good thing, surely? And hopefully it will come over to the UK in a few years. But, I am not an angler...

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it is a great thing, we have a tank full of rescue fish, the water was so bad you could literally pick it up and it was way over stocked! sadly some didnt recover from the problems they were left with once the water was finally clean(took weeks to ween them off the disgusting water).
anything that protects them like any other living creature trusted in our care can only be a good thing

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The Zoo5.3.0 Ferrets1.0.3 Corn Snakes1.0.0 Common Boas1.1.0 Dogs3.1.0 Cats1.0.0 Love Birds1.0.0 African Dwarf Frogs10.6.20 Tropical Fish

just read this
i think it's fab
i think fish deserve that quality of life in shops too
i know it's not always possible but not all fish are kept in there for a short amount of time, im sure it takes months if not years for all goldfish and fish in places like "pets at home" to be bought.

they enforce this guideline on buying a fish from them
but they don't do it themselves
just a thought, but it would be nice to see a little more done to housing fish whilst in shop care yknow?
xxx

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Well good! I agree with both of your points...

We'll sit back and wait for the anglers then

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was saying to tianrunty
i dont think fish have as much as a status as pets as cats dogs etc do
to me they're living, alive, mean as much to me as any other pet would, and need to be looked after just as much as other pets do

a personal opinion
but it's nice to see
and yes ash
we shall sit and wait :P
xxx

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Definitely not. They are not covered in the Animal Act, unlike ALL other animals (well, not inverts), and yet it has been proven they feel pain, and are just as much an animal as anything else... hopefully it will change over here too

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its good on paper, but is it really that good in reality?

what about a sick goldfish. is it legal to isolate it? are you going to have police checking houses? how are they going to decide what the max size of the fish is? some get larger in the wild then they do in captivity.

so yeah, its great that fish are getting some "protection", but it's not exactly practical.

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I think the angling bit is stupid .. How can everyone take a course in angling ..
I myself don't use barbs so that wouldn't affect me but I always use live bait for pike and catfish .. I don't think this law will come to the U.K so I am not that bothered ..

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That is a good point, yes. But, protection like this is already in place for all other vertebrates, and yet we manage to sort these issues out...?

I agree... it does seem possibly a little OTT. I dont know how they will enforce it.

I think it will, definitely. Its just a matter of time. It nearly did last time when the one of the Acts was looked at, you know when some laws changed in April 07 (like tail docking of dogs), it was possibly going to to include fish then. It didn't, however... which is sad. But I think it is only a matter of time now.

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