Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Fish are kept for companionship and hobby due to reasons ranging from beauty to cultural significance. The tradition of keeping fish in captivity is ancient and dates to, among other things, the beginning of the Roman Empire. Many of today's fish kept in aquarium are now domesticated, and through prolonged breeding they are at various stages in the process of domestication. Many welfare problems threaten fish, including poor water quality, handling, transportation, overcrowding, poor diet, and diseases, both due to inadequate animal husbandry and breeding. Many of these problems can be prevented through adequate animal welfare legislation and accurate and good information to pet owners. In the Swedish animal welfare legislation, it is described that when selling fish in pet stores, a fact sheet must accompany the animal upon transfer to the owner. These fact sheets must also contain certain information about the care of the fish, listed in nine points. The purpose of this study was to investigate the quantity and quality of the information that Swedish pet stores provide to those who buy fish from them and to examine how well this information complies with animal welfare legislation requirements and to what extent it is based on scientific grounds. How the fact sheets were provided to pet owners was also investigated. Three pet stores from three major pet store chains in Sweden were visited, and fact sheets were requested from the store staff. Among the three pet stores, 128 fish species were for sale, and 102 of these species had an accompanying fact sheet. Of these, 100 were assessed based on their compliance with the legislation, and 99% of these did not meet all legislative requirements. Regarding the scientific basis of the information in the fact sheets, no conclusions could be drawn as too little research was found on the subject. The fact sheets were likely written and based on experience rather than science. The sample in this study was too small to draw any conclusions on a national level. More research needs to be done on the subject to know how pet store fact sheets comply with legislation and contain accurate information about fish husbandry on a national level.