A makeshift goldfish pond in Brooklyn has sparked a gentrification row – with residents rowing over animal cruelty concerns.
Bedford-Stuyvesant residents decided to turn a gravel pit on the pavement fed by a leaky fire hydrant into an improvised aquarium – filling it with over a hundred goldfish.
The pond was aptly named ‘Bed-Stuy Goldfish Pond.’
‘We all just came together to do something different for the community. We decided to spice it up,’ long-time resident Jequan Irving told The New York Times.
Irving and his friends went to a pet store on Fulton Street and paid $8 (about £6) for 50 goldfish. Others left seashells and pearls in the puddle, adding a touch of class to the fish’s new home.
Residents and animal lovers Emily Campbell and Max David, however, carried out what was described as a ‘heist’ to rescue some of the fish with plastic bags
They say the tiny pond is not the right habitat for the creatures and that it would almost certainly lead to their death.
‘I’m aware of the optics of this; uppity white transplant lecturing older black man about his neighbourhood,’ Campbell said in a post on a neighbourhood subreddit.
‘That being said I’m still having a hard time with the animal cruelty of this.
‘At best these fish might be swept up in a rain storm down a storm drain and become an invasive species in a waterway somewhere. At worst, they’ll suffocate in their own waste, burning gills from chlorine, diseased, overcrowded, and stressed.
‘The temperature swings alone from such a shallow puddle could kill them. There’s no world where these fish survive much longer than a week.’
In response, Irving said goldfish are ‘the lowest-maintenance fish that you can use’ adding that the fish are being fed three times a day.
‘We’re going to put some algae in here, underground lights in here.’
‘We bought these fish, and we fixed up this little spot, using our hard-earned money,’ Irving added. ‘And they came and stole them.’
Veterinarian Julius Tepper, who runs the Long Island Fish Hospital, told NBC New York some of the concerns from the residents responsible for the heist might be justified.
‘You’ve got issues with pollution that could be a problem. You’ve got issues with predatory birds,’ he said.
‘There is a possibility they will survive, although it’s certainly not an ideal habitat.’
Department of Environmental Protection crews came on Thursday to shut the leaking fire hydrant, but Irving quickly rectified the issue and proceeded to unseal the valve.
‘Once the temperature and everything starts changing, we are going to take them out and give them to kids in the community,’ he said.
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