[ti:French Company Stops Selling Tiny Fishbowls] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:00.04]The big French pet care company AgroBiothers Laboratoire [00:05.72]will no longer sell very small containers for raising fish. [00:10.96]The company has a 27 percent share of the French market [00:16.20]for products used by people who raise animals at home. [00:20.88]But it said it would no longer sell any aquariums [00:26.04]that hold less than 15 liters of water. [00:30.04]They will only offer rectangular ones. [00:34.76]The company said it was animal abuse to put fish [00:38.96]in small bowls without added oxygen and filtration. [00:43.64]Filtration is the process of removing small particles [00:48.36]or waste from the water with a device. [00:51.28]AgroBiothers chief Matthieu Lambeaux [00:55.36]recently spoke to the Reuters news agency. [00:59.12]He used the term impulse [01:01.64]– meaning a sudden strong desire to do something [01:05.24]– to describe why many adults buy goldfish. [01:09.80]"People buy a goldfish for their kids on impulse,” he said. [01:14.76]Lambeaux added, “but if they knew what a torture it is, [01:19.08]they would not do it. Turning round and round in a small bowl [01:23.76]drives fish crazy and kills them quickly." [01:27.48]Gold fish can live up to 30 years [01:30.76]and grow to about 25 cm in large aquariums or outdoor ponds. [01:37.08]But in very small bowls they often die within weeks or months. [01:42.12]Lambeaux said gold fish are social animals that need other fish, [01:47.64]lots of space and clean water. [01:50.88]He added that having an aquarium [01:53.68]requires some special equipment and knowledge. [01:58.40]France is Europe's number one market for red aquarium fish, [02:02.88]with about 2.3 million fish, Lambeaux said. [02:07.64]In earlier years, AgroBiothers [02:10.48]sold about 50,000 fish bowls per year at about 20 euros each. [02:17.32]Germany and several other European countries [02:20.44]have long banned fish bowls, [02:22.68]but France has no laws on the issue. [02:26.84]Lambeaux believes the use of fish bowls to be an anachronism [02:31.52]– something that seems to belong to the past. [02:35.16]He explained the company’s decision further by saying, [02:39.28]“We cannot educate all our customers [02:41.88]to explain that keeping fish in a bowl is cruel. [02:46.12]We consider that it is our responsibility [02:49.52]to no longer give consumers that choice." [02:52.80]Lambeaux suggested that the reality of fishbowls is sad. [02:57.68]"There is demand for fish bowls,” he said, [03:01.08]“but the reality is that what we offer children [03:04.96]is the possibility to see gold fish die slowly." [03:10.48]I’m John Russell. 更多听力请访问51VOA.COM