Historic ruling recognizes two goldfish as sentient beings: “they cannot be displayed and treated as commodities”

For years their existence was consumed inside a cylinder of suffocating water, exposed to the burning sun of the capital and the constant vibrations of the street. Fede and Magui, two goldfish of the species Carassius auratuswere the silent attractions in the window of a sushi restaurant on calle Báez, in the Las Cañitas neighborhood of Buenos Aires in Argentina.

An intolerable imprisonment denounced by the Santuario Jaulas Vacías association. Lawyer Matías Trufero highlighted how the vertical aquarium of around 40 liters prevented the natural horizontal swimming of the species, forcing the animals to suffer lethal temperature changes due to direct sunlight and constant acoustic stress caused by passers-by and air pumps.

The search and liberation

The turning point came thanks to the timely intervention of the Unidad Fiscal Especializada en Delitos contra el Medio Ambiente (UFEMA), coordinated by the public prosecutor Blas Matías Michienzi. At his request, and based on a veterinary report from the Judicial Investigations Corps which confirmed the state of serious suffering and stress of the fish, the animals were seized. Fede and Magui were finally rescued from that glass hell and transferred to a 2,500 liter maxi-tank at the home of the expert Carlos José Aga, who offered to host and treat them, giving them a real rebirth.

Neumann’s legal turning point

The verdict issued by judge Juan Manuel Neumann of the Criminal and Contraventions Court number 12 of Buenos Aires rewrites the boundaries of the law. The magistrate formally declared the two fish “sentient beings and subjects of law”, establishing that they can no longer be considered goods or objects of private property. The owner of the restaurant avoided criminal conviction by accepting an eight-month probation: for this entire period he will not be able to keep animals in the restaurant, he will have to attend training courses in environmental law and he had to renounce forever any legal claim on the two fish.