San Francisco Considers Banning Goldfish Sales

Officials in the city of San Francisco are considering a ban on the sale of goldfish. City officials worry that animal welfare is put in jeopardy since most goldfish are mass bred or “taken from the wild.”

A member of the city’s welfare panel told the San Francisco Chronicle that the breeding and acquisition of the fish results in “devastation of tropical fish from places like Southeast Asia.”

The idea of banning the fish is not a new train of thought, the city has underwent a year long review although one supervisor notes:

“This is another Animal Welfare idea that will end up in the dustbin of history and go absolutely nowhere,” says a supervisor, perhaps referring to a previous plan to spike bird food with birth control to help the city’s pigeon problem. But “all this is, is a recommendation.”

The city’s Board of Supervisors have final say in whether the law is passed.