Fish in and of themselves aren’t terrifying unless one touches you whilst in the ocean (where you’d least expect it). But what’s scary about fish is that they aren’t the sturdiest of pets for children. I’ve just learned this the hard way and am in absolute panic about what’s ethical in this situation.
As some of you may recall from the cat-on-fire incident, our household typically has pets of the feline variety. As you may also recall from the cat-on-fire incident, cats are sturdy creatures. Thus the “nine lives” rumor lives on. I’ve never heard anything about fish having nine lives, but I figured a week-long life wouldn’t be too much to ask.
The kids wrangled me into getting them each a Beta fish after returning from their dad’s house last weekend. Apparently he had gotten them “cool” pets like Hermit crabs and turtles, and mommy only had “boring” pets like cats. They first asked for hamsters and gerbils and other animals easily eaten. After repeated denials on my part they demanded to know what they could get. I figured saying “fish” would get them to stop asking. So I said it, and they immediately went into fish mode. So there we were, two fish, two tanks, and two boxes of supplies later (and minus $40). We were now a “cool” fish family.
I set up the fish in the kids’ rooms and thought “what’s the worst that could happen?” I briefly considered that the cats would knock the tanks off the dressers and consume the fish, but then I remembered that one was fat and lazy and would only eat the fish if they landed directly on her head and the other one turned her nose up at canned tuna. This would not be likely. But now the only rational worst thing that could happen has happened. The fish is dead!
The kids are at their dad’s, so I went in to check on the fish only to find one belly-up at the top of the tank. What do I do?! What do I do?! I really just want to go buy another fish that looks similar enough to pass for the first. Is this ethical? On one hand, it will save my daughter the pain and anguish of having her fish dead. She won’t have to be the one to flush it down the toilet (or feed it to the lazy cat). But on the other hand, I’ll be lying by omission.
I am really picturing myself putting the dead fish in a Ziploc bag, bringing it to the pet store and comparing it to the other non-dead fish. I don’t think she’ll notice it’s not Fluffy Jr. (yes, that’s what she named it). But I also don’t want to be the worst mom ever.
From now on we are only getting electronic pets. Either that or I’m going to become the crazy cat lady and have like 30 cats. When one of them dies, they will hardly notice. Plus the stentch of the other cats will cover up the decomposing body smell of the dead ones and we won’t even have to flush anything down the toilet. You can never be too safe.
The Fretful Mother's Blog 
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