Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Small scale operation
Goldfish in surgery after eating catfish
SURVIVOR The catfish was pulled out alive
STEPHEN the greedy goldfish is operated on by his owner after breaking his jaw trying to swallow a cory catfish.
Vet Shona Hingston found Stephen in distress with a tail sticking out of his mouth. She had to cut his throat open to remove the stuck catfish, which fortunately survived.
Shona, 42, said: “Goldfish eat anything. But catfish are super fast and goldfish are slow, so no idea how it happened.”
She took him to Vets4pets near her home in Cramlington, Northumberland, where she works as a locum.
There she anaesthetised Stephen and held his jaw together with a plastic paperclip while she stitched up his throat. She said: “Catfish are sharp so I didn’t hold out much hope.” But Stephen pulled through and is now thriving back in his tank.
Wonderful to see a petition calling for an end to the cruel treatment of elephants at tourist attractions in India topping one million signatures.
Campaign group Save the Asian Elephants, which started the Change.org petition, wants a ban on UK firms marketing holiday venues that exploit elephants.
The millionth signature came from Barbara Chaitoff of Havant, Hants.
“Elephants are majestic and beautiful souls. I am thrilled to be part of the amazing STAE petition to raise awareness of their horrendous treatment, perpetuated by the travel industry,” she said.
A delighted Duncan Mcnair, chief executive of STAE, said: “It’s fantastic that the petition has broken through the one million mark.
“It shows the accelerating tide of horror and dismay at the abuse of Asian elephants in tourism and of the dangers.
“A new law to ban the advertising, promotion and sale of holidays to unethical Asian elephant venues must be introduced without delay.
“STAE is grateful to Government for its very constructive engagement in exploring ways to address this situation.”
Travel body ABTA says it takes animal welfare very seriously and insists that its “very clear” guidelines ban holiday firms from promoting activities such as riding and bathing elephants.
But there are no penalties for breaking the guidelines and it’s easy to find ABTA members doing just that.
Take Amber Fort outside Jaipur, India, where around 100 elephants are used to carry visitors up the hill to the historic monument.
ABTA member Authentic Indian Tours gives an elephant ride at the fort as one of its “tour highlights”.
The firm told me they no longer offer elephant rides: “Unfortunately there is some old text on the website which has not been updated”.
‘‘ It shows the accelerating tide of dismay at the abuse of elephants
Lead generation firms who helped to snare investors have disappeared, along with any commission they were paid too.
One of them was The Growth Market Limited, which told one potential investor that Allansons was “one of the most secure investments I have seen in a very long time, with excellent returns”.
It also falsely claimed that the investment was covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
The Growth Market was run from a virtual office in Guildford, Surrey, by 29-year-old Ashley Smith, and was dissolved last October.
Another lead generation firm that has also since shut down is Kingsmoor Marketing, a trade name of Kingsmoor Property Development Limited.
Its website had boasted of a “strong ethical and transparent approach.”
One victim contacted by Kingsmoor was a 75-year-old retired miner from Newcastle.
“They said there was zero capital risk,” said Derek Johnson.
“The £20,000 I’ve lost is the best part of my savings from my redundancy.
“This has really damaged my health, I’m on medication for depression.”