T-Mobile Won’t Give Away Goldfish Again After PETA Appeal

Company Receives Fish-Shaped Vegan Chocolates as Thank-You for Kind Decision

For Immediate Release:
August 2, 2017

Contact:
Sophia Charchuk 202-483-7382

A big box of delicious fish-shaped vegan chocolates is on its way from PETA to T-Mobile’s headquarters after the company confirmed that its recent goldfish giveaway during the Taste of Times Square event on July 5 won’t be repeated. T-Mobile made the kind decision after learning from PETA that goldfish are complex animals who often suffer when people grab them up in giveaways but are unable or unprepared to meet their needs.

“T-Mobile was quick to agree with PETA that fish are sensitive animals and shouldn’t be handed out like buttons or bumper stickers to passersby,” says PETA Director Anne Brainard. “Goldfish don’t belong in Times Square, the county fair, or anywhere else as prizes or promotional giveaways.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—notes that experts have determined that goldfish communicate, form bonds, grieve, and are capable of great fear, pain, and stress. Recipients of goldfish giveaways are given little or no instruction about their care, and often, people put fish in untreated tap water that contains chlorine, which burns their gills and causes them to suffer and die slowly from suffocation. The fish who manage to survive often become victims of unintentional neglect, and many are discarded when they lose their novelty or when people become tired of caring for them.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.