27-02-2025
PB Shore Club is facing protests over its goldfish races. Will they end?
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — Goldfish racing has been a peculiar feature of PB Shore Club since its opening nearly two decades ago, every week drawing dozens of bargoers out to get in on the action.
But now, the event is attracting a number of protesters who argue the tradition exploits its headlining participants — the goldfish — and that it is time for it to come to an end.
Over the last few weeks, this contingent of demonstrators has stood outside PB Shore Club during the event, which involves bargoers using straws to blow goldfish from behind to propel them from one end of a water-filled trough to the other, to voice their opposition.
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'We're not going to let them be invisible anymore. We're going to be here and we're going to stand up for their rights just like we do for so many others,' Justice Owens, founder of Bold Activists for Animal Liberation and one of the organizers behind the push, said into a bullhorn during the most recent protest against the races on Wednesday.
Owens and the other objectors argue the forced activity causes stress, pain and harm to the goldfish, especially given their small size and vulnerable bone structure. This distress has even led to some fish dying in the middle of the race, according to a previous spectator at the event.
They further contend the tides have turned on these kinds of animal competitions in overstimulating environments like bars, pointing to other establishments in places like South Carolina and Washington doing away with similar events.
A petition the group began circulating two weeks ago has already garnered about 450 signatures from people across the country.
'It's seen as cruel to many,' Owens said in a phone call with FOX 5/KUSI on Thursday. 'It's really truly awful what they do to these fish. They're fully sentient beings and they can live up to decades, but at the PB Shore Club, they only survive like a week or a couple weeks.'
However, there has been varying degrees of success in the efforts of animal rights groups to end animal-centric events at bars they view as exploitative.
In Los Angeles, for instance, a bar famous for its turtle racing made improvements to the living conditions of its amphibians amid pressure from animal advocates, but did not go so far as to discontinue the practice.
It is unclear whether PB Shore Club is receptive to making modifications to its goldfish races, let alone cancel it all together. PB Shore Club did not respond to FOX 5/KUSI's several requests for comment prior to publication.
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Owens says they have not heard from the bar's owners since their movement began as email writing and social media pressure campaign several months ago before escalating to in-person protests. Instead, he says they have been blocked from the bar's social media.
Meanwhile, the protests have been met with resistance from patrons and the bar's staff, including an incident last week where the group was pepper-sprayed as they were outside.
'This place is literally just ignoring out efforts,' Owens said. 'They're ignoring the suffering of these animals and they continue to do it, profit off of it, use it as entertainment.'
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