Flushing Nemo...

[arcab4]

whoa. first i didn't flush nemo.

but...

in today's LA Times (under the California section at the bottom) is an article about how children are flushing nemo's down the toilet b/c they think they're setting them "free" (like how nemo was set free in the movie).

Margie Valadez, a dispatcher for RotoRooter, is used to calls from upset customers whose watches, rings or even cell phones were accidentally flushed down the toilet. Lately, though, she's been taking calls from hysterical parents asking if plumbers can rescue fish.

The RotoRooter dispatch center in Valencia has received about 70 calls from families whose children have flushed their fish. "People are really talking about it," said spokesman Jeff Garcia.

Sasha De Marino, manager of Aquarium Stock in Los Angeles, said she has received seven calls from parents whose children won't believe them about the real destination of flushed fish.

read more about it here:

flushing nemo article (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-nemo26jun26,1,4434543.story?coll=la-headlines-california)

anyways..this reminded me of that Pepsi commerical a few years ago (shown during the superbowl) where in the commerical, a fish played dead until the kids gave it a sip of pepsi..and then the fish started doing tricks. so ofcourse kids really started dumping pepsi into the fishtank trying to do the same thing....

[liv4speed1]

if they're flushing clowns....thats like 20 bucks down the toilet (not to mention a life)

[Entropy]

This is a sad story but the first thing that popped into my mind was how the !$#@!@$ do these kids catch a clown or any other fish for that matter when I need to call in the navy to get one out of my tank? :D

[ChasingPuck]

Yep--guy here in town came home to find that his 8 yr old had flushed all his fish. I don't know how long it would take me to get even one fish out of my tank....

[WaterKeeper]

CNN Headline News had a brief thing a little over a week ago warning parents to tell their kids that flushing fish down the toilet was not setting them free.

[beermanic]

It is not that hard to catch nemo in one of those 5 gallon tanks that they imply they can be kept in. The fish is probably better off getting flushed than being tortured over time in these small tanks. I think the shock of the cold water will probably shock the fish that they will not suffer too much going down the big flush.

[sea-horsea]

STUPID HOLLYWOOD!!!!

they are suppose to be part of the american culture, and SLOWLY they are making more and more americans "dumb' by being stupid.....

I hate hollywood..

[Newreeflady]

Originally posted by Entropy
This is a sad story but the first thing that popped into my mind was how the !$#@!@$ do these kids catch a clown or any other fish for that matter when I need to call in the navy to get one out of my tank? :D

I think you are forgetting that many of these people have 2 clowns and a tang in a 6g tank. :rolleyes:

Angela.

[R33f3r]

Originally posted by sea-horsea
STUPID HOLLYWOOD!!!!

they are suppose to be part of the american culture, and SLOWLY they are making more and more americans "dumb' by being stupid.....

I hate hollywood..

I second that statement. Hollywood needs a revamp in a major way.

[Evergreen]

The really strange thing is in the movie, sure the fish all thought "all drains lead to the ocean" but actually when he did pop down the drain it DID say "water treatment plant"... and he pops magically out a little hole.

[pop1tart]

Well what do you expect? This is good ol' America. Some punk little kid wouldn't stop cyring at the LFS until "daddy bought them a Nemo fish" This happens everyday across America. These kids/aweful parents make me sick. It wouldn't suprise me if Wal-Mart started carrying clowns.:mad2:

[Geogal17]

The wal-mart out here actually did start carrying clowns and cute little 10 gallon tnks with a free "finding nemo" background...i think PETA got wind of it and now the clowns have been re-located to another shop.....

I made sure to rip the managers head when i saw him. :)

[JustinH]

LOL,yes Hollywood is rather bad about things like this but its nothing new to me,after about a year of collecting and studying traditional swords and edged weapons from around the world I die laughing everytime I see a Hollywood sword fight.

[boobookitty]

How can anyone really blame "Hollywood", whatever that is supposed to mean? If a kid imitates things they see in an animated film, I would think blame belongs more on the parents who didn't discuss things with the child than on filmmakers. Is "Hollywood" only supposed to put things in movies that we can all agree are "good ideas"? That's ridiculous. Disney didn't try to encourage people to keep fish - in fact, in the movie the "villain", if there was one, was the person who collected the fish off the reef and his horrible niece, because they don't properly care for the fish. And yet, the knee-jerk reaction seems to be to attack the film company for daring to make an animated movie in which fish are portrayed. For pete's sake, they were talking fish. Anyone over 5 who thinks it's real (and even 5 is pushing it) has no one to blame but themselves and their parents.

"Hollywood" has many things over which one could villify it, but this film isn't one of them.

bbk

[oceanarus]

Well said boobookitty!

[intheband]

i agree with bbk-wasnt the movies message in a nutshell that fish belong in the ocean??

parents shouldnt be giveing their kids young enough not to know better access to be able to flush nemo in the first place..and kids that are old enough should be educated by their parents..not hollywood..

[reefcam]

I second boobookitty's comment. Hollywood can't be blame for everything they put on the screen. Parents (whom for better or worst) need to also educate their kids on what is right or wrong. I know my 3 year old is good at feeding my baby bangaiis while I'm at work. Although I wouldn't say he knows what right or wrong, he is fairly knowledgeable to know not to flush any fish down the toilet without dad there. He has his own 33 gal. reef tank for pete sake.

(I can see it now. Matrix 3. Rather than having an awesome fight, everyone should just sit down at a table and discuss the problem in a fashionable method. Maybe play rock-paper-scissor and see who wins, just so our kids don't pick fights. :D )

[ez1ez]

My 5 yr old daughter knows 1/2 the fish and corals in my tank. She knows that the movie wasn't real and doesn't want me to get a Clown and anenome. She feeds my rock anenome and knows how they can be dangerous to other inhabitants. Also If a child has enough time to pull up a chair and catch fish to flush without anyone noticing..... Well that doesn't say much for the parents supervision.... If they could do that what's to stop them from eating kalkwasser, drinking tank chemicals? That's my .02

[RARZILLO]

BOO BOO KITTY in the house!:cool:

[thedude]

The problem is both with Hollywood and the parents. Hollywood creates the movies where the animals are somehow empowered with language, feelings, society, etc., but the parents never bother to explain to the kids that it's a bunch of crap. Then you have a bunch of kids running around with nonsense in their heads about animals.

[Paul-sn]

To a certain extent, I have to agree with what boobookitty said, about the parents being the ones to blame, so to speak. However, I also think that Disney is to blame.

The reality is that a lot of parents are unfit to have kids. Perhaps that's too harsh. Some parents have very bad parenting skills. They won't talk to their kids much, won't teach them much, etc... For them, the movie (and any movie) is a way to easily entertain the kids without having to actually do any work.

Those are the parents to worry about. In light of this, I believe that it is irresponsible on Disney's part to make the toilet seem like a way to free a fish. Do you honestly think they don't know any better? Of course they do.

True, parents should explain things to their children. Equally true, I think, is that society in general (which includes "Hollywood") should also be a part of that education. And for that, I think Disney made a bad move.

Just my opinion.

[boobookitty]

"The reality is that a lot of parents are unfit to have kids. Perhaps that's too harsh. Some parents have very bad parenting skills. They won't talk to their kids much, won't teach them much, etc... For them, the movie (and any movie) is a way to easily entertain the kids without having to actually do any work."

And this has changed exactly how, in the last 10,000 of human civilization?



"Those are the parents to worry about. In light of this, I believe that it is irresponsible on Disney's part to make the toilet seem like a way to free a fish. Do you honestly think they don't know any better? Of course they do. "

So let's go after anyone publishing Grimm's fairy tales for having someone climb a beanstalk to a giant's house. Or go after Sesame Street for having talking things living in garbage cans. Or go after bible publishers for telling stories about people living in the belly of a whale. We can't, after all, have people hearing such stuff, or they might be liable to try it!

Ridiculous, and a measure of how much we expect "other people" to look out for *our* kids. In fact, some of the very people espousing this concept of "responsibility" on the part of the Disney company seem more than willing to allow parents to abdicate it in the first place.

bbk

[mikester98]

how can anyone blame hollywood on this issue? what NONSENSE!!! its a free country and any company has the right to tell and sell ANY STORY however they want to.. we will always have make believe storyies making lots of money.. lets not go yelling at anyone except stupid parents. if a child reads harry potter and then jumps off the barn riding a broom are we supposed to sue the storyteller/publisher? hollywood definetly doesnt need a revamp.. its a capitalist society and they're doing EXACTLY what the consumer is asking for. poor little clownfish though :(

[boobookitty]

Agreed. To tell you the truth, I don't even know what people mean when they blame "Hollywood". To me, it sounds like a simplistic way to shift blame to some amorphous group that "should" be held responsible for the stupid things their kids do. What is "Hollywood"? Major studios? The directors? Writers? Actors? Independent film producers? They're all individuals except for the companies, which seem to me to have a responsibility to their stockholders, not to people with overly-impressionable children.

If your kids are young enough to be that impressionable, you ought to be talking to them before or after seeing movies. For older kids, if your kids are so out of touch that watching a movie makes them do stupid things, how is that the movie maker's fault? Does that mean you won't let them read any fiction because people do stupid things in it? Are you going to isolate your kids from the stupid things people do so they won't get any ideas? Or do you just want to hold those people responsible so that you're not?

And before anyone asks, I have kids, I took them to see the movie, we had a short discussion about it, and have had no problems whatsoever with "freeing nemo", even though we do have a clown fish in the tank. :)

bbk

[Jason McK]

This whole thing is just sad. It's just like when THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS came out street racing deaths doubled.

Who's responsible Honda for making cars, our beloved LFS. The bottom line is they have to make money. It's the parents IMO

That's my 2 cents

J

[Evergreen]

It is parents. Spoon feed the kids everything. No chance for growth, imagination, whatever. I have a lot of feelings about it but I can't put it in words. Generic fish, bear, dog can make a child more imaginative than the outright Nemo, Pooh, and Clifford plush. Tommow the same toy can be Goldeen, Papa bear, and Snoopy. Know what I mean?

(disclaimer- we own plenty of character figures, this is just me ranting)

[LizardWorks]

Very well said BooBoo, everything. I wish more people, particularly parents, thought like that. Too many people want someone else to take the blame for their own shortcomings. More people should accept responsibility for their own actions .

[reaper10]

http://xanadu.ambrosiasw.com/~jchamplin/images/animal/Fish/SW/tetra.wmv

101 Dalmatians meant 1000001 Dalmatians at he humane society.

Finding Nemo, means 1000001 clowns and tangs flushed down the toilet

At an eight year olds wim.

My 2 cents,

Reaper10

[Evergreen]

Ever see those (literally) painted tetra fish? (glass tetra?)
I am just waiting for them to start cropping the right pectoral of the little clowns to further resemble Nemo :rolleye1:
I am that pessimistic that I thought of that LOL

[boobookitty]

[B]101 Dalmatians meant 1000001 Dalmatians at he humane society.

Finding Nemo, means 1000001 clowns and tangs flushed down the toilet

At an eight year olds wim.[\B]

No, it's not, because an 8 year old has lots of whims. All of those are due to the lack of control, restraint and knowledge exercised by the parent. To pin it on the 8 year old, who can't buy the fish because they don't have the money, is shifting blame again. It's not the fault of the kids, the actors, the directors, or "Hollywood." Who's fault is it? Do I really have to play the Oompa Loompa song here? :)

bbk

[intheband]

Originally posted by boobookitty
[B] Do I really have to play the Oompa Loompa song here? :)

bbk

:lol: :lol: now what do you guys have to say??????????????..who dare oppose the wisdom of the oompa loompas..right on bbk:D

[dendronepthya]

I don't think that the parent's are necessarily the ones to blame because I think a great many people between 25-40 have no clue about this hobby and would think the same thing about freeing nemo in the toilet. How many times have you walked into the LFS and seen an adult shopper point to a fish in the SW section and say something completely stupid like, "let's get one of these to go with the pirana." Or, "the problem with the saltwater fish is they die..."

If the parents knew so darn much, they wouldn't have bought the 5 gallon Nemo package to begin with.

[intheband]

youre saying a great many people age 25-40 think their toilet leads to the sea?!?!?

damn i sure hope not:D

[lebowski]

HAHA!

Jeez that's hilarious! Yet very very sad..... wierd.

Anyways, you can't blame Hollywood for creating these motion pictures. They are trying to come out with movies to get people interested in. They are looking for an audience. Now, flushing fish down the drain because they saw it on screen is simply retarded. They are kids, they don't know any better. you can't blame them.

Then again, the film developers should think a bit before making a scene like that. Kids are so gulable and stupid, they can't think like us grown-ups do. Well, I'm not a grown-up. Technically I'm still a kid, well teenager, or a kid. Not sure, but the point is I can think and won't go out and kill people after watching " Jason" or such.

It's just the way life goes. Children are easily targeted for anything.

Poor fish to be killed. Sometimes it just makes me mad at how dumb children can be.

Well that's my .02 centos.