Chinese man kills his goldfish at subway station in fit of petulance
Passenger was not allowed to take the animals onto the train, so he slaughtered them
A man killed two goldfish after security guards at a subway station in central China refused to let him take them on the train, according to local newspaper reports.
The incident happened in Zhengzhou, Henan province, as the man was trying to pass through a security checkpoint. Officials noticed he was carrying the two fish in a plastic container and told him that “pets” of any kind – including dogs, cats, fish, or even insects – were not allowed to travel on the subway, Dahe Daily reported on Friday.
After arguing his case with the guards but failing to sway them, the owner of the fish, who was not identified, opened the container and began pouring the water out onto the floor. When one of the officials tried to stop him, he threw it to the ground. The fish were thrown out and died.
“The subway is powered by electricity. Any liquid spillages could cause problems,” Chen Xin, the station’s head of security was quoted as saying in a separate report by The Beijing News.
The goldfish “bounced a few times and stopped moving”, he said.
A social media user blamed the animals’ deaths on the bureaucracy of the security guards rather than the man who slammed them on the floor.
“Goldfish are not like cats or dogs,” the person said on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like service. “They don’t urinate or affect other people.”
Another Weibo user was less understanding of the petulant commuter’s actions.
“Why did the man make such a huge fuss and dump the goldfish on the ground?” the person said.
