Use of goldfish draws criticism

By Kwon Mee-yoo

The use of six goldfish at the Coex to check the safety and quality of water for bathrooms of 20 heads of state has drawn protests from an animal rights group, which calls it abuse.

Coex staffers announced Wednesday they were providing recycled water to bathrooms and used the fish to check the water purity after an eight-stage filtration system. The in-house water purification system is to remove toxic substances.

However, an international animal activist group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), denounced the move, claiming goldfish suffer pain as much as other animals do.

"Protecting world leaders is very serious, but so is protecting animals who feel pain just as people do," said Tracy Reiman, PETA's executive vice president, in a letter to the Korean authorities.

"There are a variety of modern scientific methods that would better protect world leaders and keep fish from enduring agonizing death in contaminated water," she said.

Oh Su-young, the Coex public relations manager, said the goldfish just symbolize that water in the building is clean enough for them to live in. "We go through eight steps of water purification to produce clean water," he said. "We did not mean any harm to the fish."

금붕어로 물 안전점검, 비난 쇄도

금붕어 6마리로 코엑스에서 열리는 주요20개국(G20) 정상에 공급되는 목욕탕 물의 안전을 점검하겠다는 계획에 동물권익 보호단체들로부터 강한 항의를 받았다.

코에스는 수요일 욕실에 재처리된 물을 공급하고 8단계의수처리 시스템을 거친 후 고기로 물의 청정도를 체크하겠다고 밝혔다.

그러나 국제 동물 보호 운동 단체인 “동물의 윤리적 대우를 위한 사람들(PETA)”은 금붕어가 다른 동물과 마찬가지로 고통을 겪게 된다며 수질 검사에 물고기 이용하기 위한 이 같은 움직임을 비난했다.

트레이시 레이먼 PETA 수석 부사장은 한국 당국에 보낸 편지에서 “세계 정상들을 보호한다는 것은 매우 중요한 일이긴 하지만 사람과 똑같이 고통을 겪는 동물을 보호하는 일 또한 중요한 일”이라고 밝혔다.