By goldfish standards, a massive rescue mission was carried out once the midway lights went dark on the 2013 run of the New York State Fair.
Well after midnight, Janice Wilson and others rounded up a few hundred of the goldfish that hadn’t been won over the previous two weeks.
"Transporting was very difficult," she said. "Even getting containers that we could travel in because they are very sensitive to motion and a lot of them we knew would not even make the transfer."
They were trying to prevent the goldfish's inevitable demise. Wilson, an animal rights advocate, had learned many of the fish not won as prizes were simply discarded as the vendors packed up.
"They said that the next day the maintenance people still found some bags in the dumpsters," she said. "And during the fair, the maintenance people would find some of the bagged ones in the trash cans."
That’s nothing to say of the care the fish received at the hands of some of the children that won them.
The hundreds of goldfish rescued from the fairgrounds made their way to the home of Amber Canavan.
"They arrived really late at night," she recalled. "I had as many of my tanks set up as I could, just on the floors, all over the living room."
It helped that Canavan's mother used to run a pet store.
About half the fish didn’t survive the night, but over the next few weeks, Canavan was able to give away the fish to good homes.
"It made the first floor of my house smell very fishy," she said.
There are still three fish from last year's fair living in a tank in Canavan's living room. Goldfish can live for a handful of years if they’re taken care of properly.
Wilson and her colleagues went to the fair administration before this year’s fair and asked that the goldfish game not be played.
"To me, it’s the same as throwing a cat in the dumpster when it’s no more use to you," she said.
So missing from this year's fair was the ping-pong into a fishbowl game and no goldfish were awarded as prizes.
In response to questions from WRVO last week, a state fair spokesman said there was concern for the wellbeing of the fish after vendors left the fairgrounds and out of "an abundance of caution," they suspended the prize.
Interim fair director Troy Waffner confirmed Wilson’s account in an interview a few days later.
"That’s unacceptable, whether it’s fish or anything else," he said.
Waffner said the new midway operator, Wade Shows, went along with the fair's decision and agreed to not roll out their goldfish game at the midway. The fair says it will revisit the decision before next year's fair.
State law does allow for fish to be given out as prizes at agricultural events:
Ag and Markets Law, Article 26, Section 358-a: No person shall give or offer to give away as a prize, or exchange or offer to exchange for nominal consideration, any live animal other than purebred livestock or fish in any game, drawing, contest, sweepstakes or other promotion, except when any live animal is given away by individuals or organizations operating in conjunction with a cooperative extension education program or agricultural vocational program sanctioned by the state education department.
Wilson says they’ll lobby the fair to continue its ban. And they’re taking the issue up with legislators to have the law amended to not include fish as legal fair prizes.
"When humans use animals for monetary gain, whether it's for entertainment or for fun," Wilson said, "I think the animals are going to be the ones that suffer."
