A 21-year-old engineer has been fined and banned from keeping fish for five years after a British court heard he swallowed a goldfish in a “horrible act of cruelty” at a funfair. Alexander Mackey from Plymouth admitted causing unnecessary suffering to a goldfish by swallowing it.
The fish was won in a game last October at the Goose Fair in Tavistock, Devon by one of Mackey’s friends, Plymouth Crown Court was told.
A few days later a video was posted on a friend’s Facebook account and a complaint was made to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty (RSPCA). Mackey was ordered to pay a fine and costs totalling 752 pounds for the crime, the BBC reported.
He was also banned from keeping fish for five years. The RSPCA commissioned a vet’s report which it said confirmed the fish died in his stomach as a result of a lack of oxygen and would have suffered a lot of pain.