One Fish, Two Fish

One of the perhaps stranger side effects of the economic downturn is that people from the surrounding area have been using the trash compactor and recycling dumpsters in our apartment complex as a dumping ground, rather than pay the local trash haulers extra when they have large loads of stuff they want to be rid of. Combine this with people who decide to dump most of their world possessions when they move out, and recently, it's been next to impossible to dispose of things.

Anyway, early this evening, a young couple showed up in a big pickup truck, and began unloading as much stuff as they could, placing some of it on the donation box for a local charity. As I cam closer I realized that one of the items they'd unloaded was a fishtank.

"C'mon guys," I said to myself. "You could have at least cleaned it, first." As I walked closer that changed to: "Is it really to much to ask to dump out the water before 'donating' it?" And then it became: "WTF?!"

Yep. They hadn't even bothered to remove the fish first. I know that they're counting on some softy to give the fish a good home, but that's just a bastard move. I suspect that if the tank is still there in the morning, the fish will be done for, unless they're used to relatively cool water.

It's things like this that dampen my tendency to become up in arms when someone suggests that the keeping of animals as pets should be banned.