P-05-933 Ban Goldfish from being given away at funfairs. #OperationGoldfish, Correspondence – Petitioner to Committee: additional information from RSPCA Cymru in relation to the Showman’s Guild, 17.06.20

The RSPCA have worked with them in the past, but have not had any direct correspondence with them for about 25 years so we can't necessarily endorse whatever they're doing at the moment, and we don't know what care information they might be giving out with our name on it.

According to our records, we came to an agreement with the Guild in 1955 that they would include guidance in their rule book/code of practice on the giving of live animals as prizes, although we still took the position that animals should not be given as prizes at all. This included conditions about how fish should be kept and a requirement that an RSPCA care leaflet is given with each fish (see below). Their 2019 rules booklet still refers to the original rule from 1958 which suggests that hasn't changed since then.

From our files, the last date of correspondence appears to be 1995. At some points during the 70s, we were sending thousands of copies of our leaflets to the organisation for them to distribute to their members, but the last reference to leaflets was in 1990.

In relation to their care advice - it's generally lacking in detail and there are several points where our current guidance does differ from theirs. For example we advise a stocking guide of 0. 5cm of fish per 2 litres of water. whereas they advise 0. 5cm per 1 litre. There's no information in their guide about filtration and water testing, which is a surprising omission as this is critical for good water quality, and nothing about how long the tank takes to establish (should be. around two weeks before adding any fish, whereas they suggest adding fish immediately). They also describe goldfish as social and need the company of other fish, which isn't the case as 'they are fine being kept alone.

The RSPCA remains committed to ending the giving of pets as prizes, with those animals that are given as prizes often suffering as a result.