66 Year old Grandmother fined and electronically tagged for selling Goldfish to 14 year old!

You really couldn't make this up...

Courtesy of Canada's National Post...

A 66-year-old English great-grandmother has been sentenced to wear an electronic ankle tag and obey a court imposed curfew at night after she sold a goldfish to a 14-year-old boy.

Pet shop owner Joan Higgins told reporters her seven-week curfew would mean she would miss her weekly bingo game, babysitting her great-grandchildren at their home and a Rod Stewart concert.

Ms. Higgins was also fined £1,000 ($1,500).

"It's just ridiculous. I honestly can't believe...

Full article: Grandmother hooked in U.K. goldfish sting
Source National Post (2010)


It could only happen in this country!

That judge needs a slapping, and the MP's that legislated for that need lining up and executing with a swift bullet to the head.

"It was reported the prosecution cost British taxpayers an estimated £20,000 ($31,000)." Now I can understand (and we do it here too) a 'sting' for selling 'booze' to an underage person .... but a frickin' GOLD FISH????

What was the 'sale price?' Twenty five cents in USD?

This one really looses me ...

Stories like this all over the place now.

I am not saying its the case here because i just dont know the details.
But sometimes you have to look at the reporting of the story and how much the press twisted the story to make it news worthy.

Could there have been animal welfare issues there, but not enough to evidence to prosecute. or a rash of complaints from parents in the neighbourhood of kids turning up at home with unwanted pets?
Could she and her son have been persistant pest's who had been warned several times?

Could this of been a serious case of Budgie rustling?

''Stories like this all over the place now.
Welcome to New Labours Broken Britain''.

Actually these stories are all over the place due to Murdochs brainwashed Britain.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/shop-owner-prosecuted-for-selling-goldfish-to-14yearold-1931974.html

More details here. It doesn't sound quite so political-correctness-gone-mad when you read about the cockatiel with a broken leg which had to be put down, because she'd been too "distracted" to take it to the vet. It sounds like one of those smelly depressing pet shops full of miserable animals that you hardly ever see any more these days, thankfully.

Another April's Fool story perhaps? Check the dateline.

SharkeyP

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Often thinks not travel widens,
Stay at home the Trout obliges.

There is a bit more to the headline on this one than the likes of the Daily Mail, etc would have you believe.

I remember reading this the other day on the Mail's website (always have a salt cellar handy when doing this as you'll need more than a pinch).

Their focus was all about the "entrapment" of sending a 15 year old boy in to buy a goldfish. It wasn't till much later in the article that they mentioned the other long-standing concerns including:

* a 14 year old girl with a learning disability buying a hamster from the same shop which she promptly decided to teach to swim - in a hot cup of coffee..
* the cockatiel which was so neglected (including having an untreated broken leg) that it had to be put down.

This legislation is there for a reason. How many stories have there been of kids strapping a hamster to a firework, etc. Should kids be able to buy pets that's their parents don't know about?

The strapline of "66 year old granny tagged" is always an emotive one but the mail loves a bit of moral outrage... anything which helps meet their "political correctness gone maaaad!" quota for the week.

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www.paisleyabercornanglingclub.co.nr


"Give a man a fish and he is fed for a day...

Teach a man to fish and he's away almost every weekend, buys loads of gear he'll never use and can't walk past a single piece of water without popping the polaroids on for a quick look..."

She shouldn't be tagged she should be imprisoned for being a criminal. If it was a 20yr old pet shop owner he would of had the book thrown at him. Just because its a granny everyone feels she should get away with it. Its not the Goldfish its the bigger untold story but like all newspapers they are only interested in the sensationalism and not the facts. As a pet shop owner she should know better. It is ilegal in this country to sell pets to a minor as it is ilegal to sell cigatettes, fireworks and alchol. I get fed-up with so called old people getting away with breaking the law because of their age. An offence is an offence whether it be committed by a 20yr old or a 70yr old.

So there. I'm of fishing and if a granny comes down the road on the wrong side at me I will just move out the way and say never mind if she kills someone she can't help it its her age.

No april fool.
Local authority had been on case for some time.
Was blatant case of animal cruelty over prolonged period, forget goldfish, that was a set up by authority to get case to court, to justify search, and compilation of evidence.
Owner should never be allowed to sell livestock again.
regards
bert

As with most stories you have to listen to both sides of the argument. It does seem that the lady in question was a serial offender but she denies selling the gerbil, there had been no mention of that animal being put in hot coffee, just in a sealed container and the cockatiel was allegedly not for sale and had the injury when taken in.

The real issue here is that the crime she committed and was convicted of was to sell a goldfish to a person under 16 years of age. Irrespective of the age of the buyer she apparently also failed to give an advisory sheet on goldfish care. Had the buyer been 16 then no crime would have been committed as far as I can tell.

This law makes one wonder whether the lunatics have taken over the asylum. You might argue that it is right that a child under 16 shouldn't be able to buy a pet but there is no law that prevents any person of over 16 buying a pet and then giving it to a very small child, let alone a 15 year old.

You also have to ask yourself what form of ID a person of 16 is likely to carry to prove their age.

You might also think that efforts and expense of the council officers in Trafford might have been better employed preventing the sale of cigarettes and alcohol to minors and perhaps consider how much of a danger to society the culprit is and how appropriate it is to electronically tag and curfew a 66 year old grandmother for an offence like this.

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“There is no more lovely country than Monmouthshire in early spring. Nowhere do the larks sing quite so passionately, as if somehow inspired by the Welsh themselves. There is a blackbird on every thorn and a cock chaffinch, a twink as they call him there, on every bush...... It moved me profoundly. I had been spared to see another spring, and I thank God for it.”

Oliver Kite
“A Spring Day on the Usk”
A Fisherman’s Diary