I met my first genetically engineered fish the other day. It was a Red Glow Danio, or GloFish, according to the local pet store website:
New on the market. These fish actually glow in the dark under black lights or atinic blue lights. These fish have been genetically altered using jellyfish and/or anenome DNA. You can be among the first in the country to own these fish!
I heard about these fish last year, there was a big uproar about them and California banned them. My first thought was “I want one!” As soon as that thought was half finished I started thinking about the ramifications of this. All of a sudden visons of Brave New World and Gattaca floating in my mind. I also thought of an argument against animals genetically engineered for our benefit, when does it stop? When do we start creating legless, beakless chickens because it’s more convienient for food and egg production? I’m no fan of chickens, but there is a point where it just becomes creepy. What is that point? Who decides? Ah these are interesting questions that it seems my generation is already beginning to struggle with.
Still, I love zebra fish, and GloFish are damn cool. If I was in the position to invest in fish they’d be at the top of my list.
While writing this I did a quick search to find an article about California’s ban on them, and it turns out that just yesterday there was news about them reconsidering the ban: DFG commissioner’s wife lobbies for GloFish – SACRAMENTO — California regulators voted Thursday to reconsider the nation’s only ban on biotech household pets after one commissioner said he was intensively lobbied by his wife, a household aquarium owner who wants to buy the outlawed fluorescent fish…
The pet store we were at was just a nice local one in Harleysville. It was large for just a local non-chain store, it smelled like a pet store, and they had all sorts of great stuff. Both Michael and I feel much more comfortable giving our money to a place like that than the huge Petsmart or Petco chains in the area (remember my fear of cookie cutter chain stores?), and supporting local business is good. They use an old credit card machine that has a noticable dial up connection to process requests, and dozens of hand-written notes decorated the area around the register with various prices and PLUs. When I noticed they had a website I expected the kind of poorly designed local store website that I usually see. Boy was I in for a surprise. Their website is finsfeatherspawsclaws.com, and not only is it beautiful, it’s up to date! Specials of the *week*! Someone really takes time to handle this website, and I’m impressed. Yay for local shops with kickass websites!
I was checking the forecast this morning, hoping Sunday would be nice enough to do a bit of hiking around some trails here, and I saw this:
ARE YOU KIDDING ME? It’s April! No more snow %( my poor flowers. It’s supposed to get back up into the 50’s on Tuesday. Maybe next weekend will be better for doing some hiking.
But now I need to make a few adjustments on my system before the LAN party this evening. Yay LAN party! I’m so excited. *wanders off*