The original, critically acclaimed Anglerfish Dating Simulator! Explore the bottom of the sea in search of a mate. But be careful, because male anglerfish need to find a mate in order to live, but by doing so they also cease to exist as anything other than a pair of testes.
The really strange thing about this movie is that despite its strongly overt themes of anti-captivity, it triggered a huge boom in sales of clownfish. A vast number of people seriously watched this movie and decided that they would go out and buy tropical fish.
About half of the tropical fish in pet stores are wild-caught. In the five years following the movie’s release, the clownfish population on some reefs fell by 75%. The increased level of sedatives used to knock out wild fish caused lasting damage to tropical ecosystems.
Because many people did no research on how to care for tropical fish, many clownfish died as a result of inadequate living conditions.
When people got bored of caring for their fish, many of them were released into oceans where they were not native. Feral clownfish (among other popular aquarium fish) are even now harming the ecology in American oceans. (link)
So many people’s reaction to seeing a cute animal is “I want one!” This stems from the belief that animals are objects to be owned, not complex individuals with desires, needs, and lives of their own. “I want one!” demonstrates a complete disregard of animal’s rights to live autonomously, and places the focus squarely on human desires.
Animal lives have higher standing than human whims. Animals do not belong to us. Fish aren’t meant to be in a box.
PiraticOctopus 