Lee este artículo en español
Two goldfish sit in a glass display case on the façade of a sushi restaurant in a chic neighborhood in Buenos Aires, almost unnoticed except for the occasional child tapping on the glass.
One day someone took a closer look at the tank, which was exposed to the sun and city noise. It would change the fate of two small fish named Fede and Magui, who were later recognized as intelligent beings with rights in an Argentine court.
“Anyone who walks by and stops to look at it will see that it’s not a suitable place for fish,” said Matias Trufero, a lawyer for the NGO Jauras Vasias, an anti-speciesism sanctuary that houses more than 200 protected animals.
That is why Jaulas Vacías (Empty Cages) decided to file a complaint in court, claiming that the conditions of these fish violate Argentina’s law 14.346, which punishes animal cruelty, he said.
They filed a lawsuit with the help of experts and almost immediately convinced the court to move the fish to a more suitable location.
Truferro, the main proponent of the change, said restaurant staff did not object to the ruling. CNN has reached out to the restaurant for comment.
Placing two fish in a glass display case is “almost like putting two polar bears in a cage in a sauna,” said Carlos José Aga, one of the experts who helped with the rescue and offered to adopt them.
Magui and Fede were moved from a 40-liter display case to a 2,500-liter aquarium at Aga’s home. The court ruled that the fish would remain in the custody of the adopter.
“Fish are like astronauts, moving through their own environments while carefully monitoring all important parameters. And when they arrive at a location, their conditions must be reproduced very precisely to avoid imbalances that can lead to weakened immunity,” Aga explained.
“Right now they’re doing very well,” he said.
But rescuing the fish was only part of the process.
“At the beginning of the case, we requested that in addition to relocating the fish to a safe and suitable location, they be declared subject to the law,” Truferro explained.
In other words, he wanted them to stop recognizing fish simply as legal “properties” and instead see them as beings with rights.
Such decisions set a precedent for similar animals being placed in conditions unsuitable for living dignified lives.
For those wondering if it’s illegal to keep goldfish at home, Truferro said the answer depends on the situation.
“Keeping fish in tanks is not illegal per se, but it is illegal to keep fish in conditions that cause abuse or cruelty, such as insufficient space, insufficient food, or other actions punishable by law,” Truferro said of Argentine law.
“Furthermore, in the case of exotic species, keeping them may be prohibited if they fall under local wildlife laws,” he said, adding that similar regulations exist in many other countries.
The first time a writ of habeas corpus was filed on behalf of a non-human animal was in 2005 against Suiza, a chimpanzee living in Brazil who died before being transferred to a sanctuary.
Since then, similar incidents have begun to occur in other countries, including Argentina. The best-known case is Sandra, a German-born orangutan. Sandra lived at the Buenos Aires Zoo for 20 years until 2014, when a judge declared her a “non-human” thanks to a lawsuit brought by environmentalists.
The judgment found that her confinement and display violated her rights, even though she was well fed and not abused.
In 2016, the Buenos Aires Zoo was transformed into an eco-park, removing animals from exhibits and moving many to sanctuaries. Sandra was sent to the Great Ape Center in Wauchula, Florida in 2019.
“The importance of declaring these animals subject to the law lies in the fact that they are no longer considered objects or objects,” Truferro explained.
In cases of cruelty and abuse, animals are seen as victims rather than objects, fundamentally changing how animals are defined in the future.
The Fede and Magui case paved the way for legal protection for these types of fish, which are very common in homes and businesses.
“Subjects with legal rights can do little or nothing for themselves unless there is someone to speak on behalf of those who cannot speak or enforce the law,” Aga stressed, adding that Fede and Magui have already settled into their new homes.
