Small Lives
I don’t mention it much on this weblog, but my wife and I keep freshwater fish. Yesterday I went to a chain pet store and bought a couple of African dwarf frogs to keep the two I already have company. Today, one of the new ones died. It’s no surprise to me. The tank they came from was filthy, polluted by a 6” aggressive goldfish.
We bought some neon tetras at another store—a place where the tanks are crowded but clean and the fish often in good health. There, the clerk netted more fish than he needed, poured some of them in the bag for us, and then left the other tetras in the plastic catch-box gasping in less than a sixteenth of an inch of water while he sealed my back and marked the price.
What is wrong with these people? These are small lives to be sure, but they are small lives we have taken responsibility for. I don’t care that the tetras are sold two for a dollar or that the frogs are cheap wholesale. These animals are helpless under our care.
