I went to Walmart tonight and passed through the fish section. I hate seeing all those fish in such horrible conditions but I went over there and saw a really wierd fish. They were mollies with 'tattoos'. I came home tonight and researched a bit and they tattoo the scales of the fish using a dye laser. I was horrified.

People think of fish as cold, unfeeling creatures. I'm the kind of person that views animals as individual beings, almost like people, only less intelligent. I treat my cats and reptiles as my children. I would never even think of tattooing any of my animals. Its cruel and makes the animal seem like a cell phone that you can customize to your liking. Want a fish with a ying yang painted on the side, sure. I mean jeeze. What is this? Supposedly no fish have died from this procedure, but they have to take the fish out of water for a period of time, blast them with this lazer and then dye the fish. That in itself is stressful and dangerous for the fish. Any disruption of thier slime coating makes them vunerable to illness, not to mention the time out of water is very stressful for the fish.

Tattooing a fish is unnecessary and possibly harmful for the animal. If you want an animal you can customize, get a hermit crab and paint its shell. Don't go around tattooing a fish.

What are your thoughts on this practice?