Italian region bans fish fans from keeping goldfish in bowls

ROME (AFP) - Monza, a Northern Italian region best known for its Formula 1 Grand Prix, has become the first place in Italy to ban pet owners from keeping their goldfish in bowls, the council said.

The town council passed a ruling "on the treatment of domestic animals, which will go into effect in a fortnight", council official Giampietro Mosca told AFP.

The text, acknowleged as "avant-garde" by its backer, bans the sale of coloured chicks at fairs, the use of small animals as competition prizes as well as outlawing goldfish bowls.

"A fish kept in a bowl has a distorted view of reality...and suffers because of this. Also, this type of receptacle generally doesn't have a filter and doesn't allow for good oxygenation of the water, unlike in rectangular aquariums" Mosca explained.

"This story about the goldfish, which has gone around Italy, seems a little irrelevant and people have mocked it a bit, but it has a very specific educational sense, especially for the little ones", he added.

"The ruling is intended to transmit a message about the correct treatment of domestic animals", Mosca said.

"In Monza, where we have no less than 15,000 dogs for 120,000 inhabitants, you have no idea of the hygiene problems caused by animals and people living together and we don't want to see animals treated like objects any longer", he concluded.

Other regions, such as Reggio Emilia, have rules on the treatment of animals derived from a 1991 national law, but the goldfish clause is a "singularity of Monza", according to Mosca.