I went to Bottle Tree Park @Yishun with my niece today. First time there. $10 (child) for a small plastic tank and a net, fish you catch = fish you bring home. Initially, I thought it's nice to let the kids experience getting wet and catching fish in a pond. But then I saw the quality of the kids nowadays. Tsk tsk tsk.
When I was helping my niece in the pond, I already realized a couple of dead fishies in the water. It was then I saw what took their lives.
This boy was trying to catch some fish with his plastic tank lid in the pond. Fishies are small and agile, so they escape fast. But there was this poor little fish who could not escape quick enough. I thought it was dead already as I didn't see it moving. But in between the funny boy's drastic attempts to scoop that fish up, I caught glimpses of flapping movement from the fish! It's alive with only one fin left! And this funny boy just kept swish-swooshing his lid in the water, hitting the poor fish at the same time. Can you imagine the force its little body is taking from this giant kid!?
More fishy-killing in action.. :p
It's actually okay if they don't know as they are still young. Worse thing is, even parents don't bother to correct/guide their kids to do the right thing.
I often see kids at aquariums or pet shops knocking and hitting the glass windows, their parents standing aside. At times, I wish they have these glass containers on their heads and everyone would be knocking on their walls, so at least they would know what it feels like to be one of those animals that they are torturing, if not a 100 times worse. It's very ironic sometimes because some people, as much as being civilized and educated, can't seem to read signs that say "Please do not disturb the animals" or "Please do not knock on the glass windows" etc. It's like: "Hello~ Your kids may not know how to read, but I hope you do. So please tell your kids to stop banging like nubcakes!!"
Then there's this most ridiculous fat boy that I've ever met. He dared to place his fat fishy hands on my back, as he was making an effort to waddle to his mother. Quite smart of him to use me as a stepping stone! At least the father, who was looking after him, could say something such as "excuse me" or "sorry", if I was blocking his son's way. Not even a chinese word (they sounded china-ese). But no. As if I am obliged to do that. On the contrary, I would think that their son was held too honorable to have been there in the presence of my aura. (Or my "death knight's aura" which I can imagine wx saying.) Just look at him. I can't imagine what's a poor fish like under his fatty limbs. (Notice that he was featured in both my "fishy-killing" action photos. Hehe, I was trying to capture him stomping his feet in the water. :p)
A funny girl to end my trip. She was literally rolling in the pond. All wet and soaked in fishy water. Head to toes. :)
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Fishies we caught!!
But when we got home, one of the fishies was already dying.. :(
Just like the fish I saw earlier with a broken fin. It could hardly move, so it just lays at the bottom of the tank. Occasionally, when other fishies come to nudge it and "bite" it, it would make a huge effort to swim a little, but had to stop and lay down again. We separated the fish from the others before we went out. Gave it some food, but I guess he didn't have the strength to struggle to the surface, and so it died by the time we were back. Poor fish. I was reminded of my ah-ho, who died an even more tragic death. Sigh.
