Animal rights: Is it ok to kill fish so you can have soft feet?

Question

Is any organization doing something about the treatment of the Garra Ruffa fish (doctor fish) being used in pedicures in Virginia? See http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080722/ap_on_fe_st/fish_pedicures_7 for more details.

If you take a close look at one of the pictures, you can see a dead fish. They are not being fed on purpose so that they have no choice but to eat people's dead skin! It's abusive!

Answer 1

Thay seam happy to me. But you cant really tell with a fish. Of course fish die all the time with out being abused. I dont know!

Answer 2

I own fish, and actually had this pedicure while I was in DC a little while ago- how ironic. The fist didn't seem stressed, just waiting for someone to stick a foot in their water and it was kinda chaotic in the salon but the fish ignored it for the most part.

Answer 3

Not if it's a pet, which is what this section is about.

Answer 4

of course its not okay! that's wrongg.. just for soft feet? wow..

yea i agree with you its totally abusive

Answer 5

oh yea i heard that on good morning america and im so against it. thats sooo wrong =[ i think if people want 20 lil of em fish at home so they can have there feet clean lol thats cool. but salons doing it to make money and not feeding them cuz there money hungry is so wrong. i hate them >.<

Answer 6

The act of cleaning the feet doesn't kill the fish. These fish do this in the wild to other creatures, too. It has nothing to do with not being fed.

And I looked at all the images and saw not a one dead fish, but that may be because I'm a biologist and you're just hysterical.

Garra Rufa is a freshwater sucker barb, similar in action to the Pleco most people have in freshwater tanks. They'll suck on anything, and protein from skin shavings is as good to them as anything else.

A friend of mine bred garra rufa, and if you stuck a hand in the aquarium they'd suck on you to get a taste even if there was plenty of food.

He'd tell the local kids they were pirranah.

Answer 7

Relax.  These fish do not have to be starved to nibble at dead skin on feet.  I've put my hand into a fish tank full of well fed fish that still do this.

Just because there was one dead doesn't mean they are being abused!  If you look into any 100 fish tanks with healthy fish in them you will find some with dead fish.

Answer 8

Silly... there's no way a toothlish GOLDFISH LIKE (look like feeder comets!) fish can eat a persons callus... there's just no way.  It even says in the article that the patients get pedicures following the "fish treatment".  30 minutes of soaking in water, fish or no fish, is going to soften calluses... I think it's a gimmick.  

And yes, I feel bad for the fish too... just because they're not beings with higher intellligence doesn't mean they don't deserve respect.

Answer 9

yeah i didn't like it either. I don't know whether the fish like dead skin but just doesn't look right.

Besides, what if biting fish will give some kind of infection? What do they do with fish? Are they disposable after the "pedicure"? Or they give them to the next person?

I love fish and it seems mean.