...for bettas keep getting smaller and smaller! Went to Petsmart a couple of days ago to get some new things for our parakeet, and had a look at the bettas, and wouldn't you know, some smartie pants reduced the size of those cups to half!!! Can you believe that! Now the bettas don't have any space whatsoever to even slightly spread their finnage out, those cups were not higher than 2 1/2 inches, compared to the usual 4 inches they used to have!!! I was so mad, I thought, what are they gonna put the bettas in next - those plastic tops from water bottles!!??? :angry:

It's so sick the way Bettas get treated in pet stores. The shame of it is the really pretty little vases that would suck-in people like me if I didn't know better (no pun intended).

The vase that I rescued Friendly from would have been about the size of a small wine glass. People take them home and wonder why they die, then they try again and again until they finally give up. In the meantime how many Bettas have died because of people with the best intentions but the wrong information?

here's something that will make you even more sick....have you ever seen the way that most dealers ship those bettas? it'll make you think the cup is a nice relief! picture this...a triangle of plastic about the size of a cell phone...with only enough water to fill the one corner. they literally force the betta to lay sideways in order to live in that corner. i saw them laying out on a table once that way right after the delivery of a shipment. they were ripping open these little plastic triangles and putting them into vases and cups. i almost breathed a sigh of relief that the little thing was able to now move in that cup! it was horrible. about 75% of the body was exposed to air in those triangles. i couldn't believe it. - this is also the store where every single betta (except two females) that i've bought from there has died of flex and bacterial infections within days that i bought them......stressed before purchase maybe???

The pets mart and wall mart here have changed there cups. There bigger. The betta's are in a cup thats about the size of a 1 gallon jar. And they fill the cups with water to the top so they have room to swim. I gess it's different every where.

if you think the cups are bad, check this out...bubble gear. i think we should all email this woman and tell her how awful of an idea sh has.

OH MY GOD!!!!! :crp I can't stand that. That's not right. WHO made them? do you know? We should e-mail her telling her how awful it is.

That link is also posted on a big tropical fish website, I know for a fact myself and a couple other people emailed Faith at Bettatalk, but I didn't receive a reply. :angry:

She has gotten tons of emails about her stupid purses, and I think everybody should join in!

Ya I donn't know why she is trying to make them I mean one thing is if they were made I think the betta would be stressed out of this world......

you know it would get slushed around all day, left in the hot/cold car, and to top it off-it says the thing is water tight! how are they supposed to breathe?? i dont think a fish would last a day in there... check out her contact page for her email address.

I e-mailed her...... about that saying it's wrong to do it.

Oh I so didn't need to see that. How horrible of a person are you to actually think of animals as a accessory (?). Really, I think someone along the way should've stopped this lady. I'm not always a pusher of PETA but I do think they could've stepped in at some point. I wonder if they even know about these purses?

As for the cups, our Petsmart has tiny ones with hardly any water. And of all places our Meijers has them in 1/2 gal jars! I couldn't believe it, they actually have been the healthiest ones I have seen.

Go figure?
Laurie

Ya I live in Warner Robins GA and they did change them here. There bigger....

i emailed her a nasty note a while ago and got no response. what i want to ask her is ; ok, it's air tight, and when the fish dies, what, do you just throw out the purse, cause "OH my gawd, like a DEAD FISH just, like, is probably NOT, like, going to be, like, in style, like for REAL?" $^$%^$^%$#*^&(*& people

You tell her!!!!! Way to go.

Love it.

Ya I all so e-mailed her a mean e-mail.... :monkey I hope some one stopes her.

I just sent an e-mail. Those fish didn't do anything to deserve such a punishment.

I always considered Faith from BEttatalk a responsible betta person. After all she breeds a ton of them, and doesn't sell them cheap. She does have a big mouth sometimes, and some of her view is a bit weird. What on earth was she thinking with those purses then?
As for terrible betta deliveries, came upon a store a few months ago, which had gotten a betta delivery the day before, but I didn't make it that day and was there the following day. Had a a look at about 20 or so bettas in the usual 99 cent bowls and asked if that was all he got the day before. Wouldn't you believe, he pulled out a bucket from underneath the tank area, and the tank contained 20 or so more bettas, still in their plastic bags they were delivered in!!!! He just tossed those bettas he didn't have bowls for with their bags into the bucket. When I asked him what on earth that was, he said, that they do just fine in there for up to a week!!!!
There was no way he would see me ever again, EVER! .....

I'll never understand why people think that bettas can be treated in such shabby and bizarre ways! I am so thankful that after quite a number of years, I have been reconnected with these beautiful creatures, and have a chance to give some of them a loving home.

i dont htink mean emails are the best way to go. i think if you are going to send her an email, send her facts and reasons (and there are plenty) about what is wrong with these bags. faith from bettatalk supports them? did i miss something?

So what can we do about the stores that have betas in little urine cups? Is there an organization that you can inform and have them take action?

It just now clicked in for me that Faith from Bettatalk is behind the bags.

I had heard some negative things about her, but I would never expect this.

The email I sent her was not mean. I sent her facts and told her that if I was wrong and these bags were not inhumane for her to please write me back and correct me.

Okay I just checked my email and I did get a response. Not from her but from someone else. I wish I was smart enough to know how to paste it here. Anyway, I'll try to remember the jist of it. She said that she herself has had one of these bags for over a year with the same betta, and he is alive and in great condition. And the bags have been tested for a year without ever losing a betta. She said that the water is reoxygenated when the betta is fed everyday. She said that the betta is not sloshed around because of the mechanics of the bag (she didn't explain how) and that the only way it would be sloshed around is if someone was mugged. And also she said frequent water changes keep the water clean. Anyway, it was a very polite email message and she seemed to show concern for the bettas. Anyway...then she said that bettas in some pet stores are in green filthy water in much worse conditions, which kinda bugged me. I didn't think that was relevant.

So, I just thought y'all would like to know what they said. Maybe some of you got the exact same email. Make of it what you will. I don't know much about bettas but I know you guys do and can tell if these are humane or not.

I don't believe it for a second! My purses don't last that long without taking some damage (I'm a very active mom & they are knocked about quite a bit). Maybe if you only used it once in a while. They DO seem to be designer bags. But... what to do with the fish in the meantime while you're not using the bag?? Leave them in the closet? Buy a fishtank/proper container??

Plus, IMHO, the people who are most likely to want this are looking for a way to show off. I don't believe they will be very concerned about water quality, etc. Lord only knows how often the poor things would even be fed! This reminds me of the bags people carry dogs around in, only the poor fish don't have a voice/teeth to use if things get bad!

PLus what if they leak and you're not around any de-chlorinated water???

Ugh

This really goes beyond the pale!

yeah - that answer is a bunch of bull. no matter what the desinger or their employees say - use your own common sense on this one....can fishies be moved around and still live? Yes. SHOULD THEY? Absolutely not. I panick everytime the train goes by and my apartment vibrates a bit!! Bettas need stable conditions with CONSTANT air supply and at least a gallon of water to be healthy. Even then some need filtration, larger space, special needs etc.
The PETA wouldn't let puppies or cats or even KFC Chickens live in a piece of apparel like this, nor should we let fish.

These people that support this purse thing don't know about fish like we do, period.

Good job on emailing them though and thanks for posting their reply. I emailed them a while back and got nothing in response.

No prob. Yeah the email didn't make me feel much better at all. I really hope they go out of business.

in my lfs they have bettas in a very small tank about 3'' tall filled half way and 2'' wide its discraceful and my other lfs takes good care of bettas putting them in 5 gallon tanks then putting them in big baggies that you get big common goldfish in about 3/4 of the size of an asda carrier bag

Sorry to butt-in everyone; this was just too crazy. Some apparently good news: The bubble gear site is no longer hosted on freewebs. Also, being the Google junkie I am, my search for "bubblegear" yielded results showing a very positive proactive sort of buzz: the entire web is totally TICKED OFF at Aneisha Howard. I see loads of people writing various animal rights organizations and forming petitions to stick it to this lady.

The most encuraging hit I found was a letter from the head of Friends of Animals to Aneisha Howard. Here is the letter.
Is this good?, because I seems that way to me.

bubble gear is the worst form of cruelty to bettas ive ever seen they shopuld be discusted with them selves

Hayden, try not to dig up old posts hun

ok soz i forget to read dates

Sorry to keep the thread going...but does are these betta purses still made? The link doesn't work anymore so I don't know exactly what they are or Faith's part on it.