Great-grandmother given an electronic tag and curfew for selling a goldfish to a 14 y

[mancroft]

Joan Higgins, a pet shop owner, was caught selling the fish to the teenager in a 'sting' operation by council officials. She was then prosecuted in an eight month court process estimated to have cost the taxpayer more than £20,000.

Under new animal welfare laws, passed in 2006, it is it illegal to sell goldfish to under 16s. Offenders can be punished with up to 12 months in prison.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/pets/7538391/Great-grandmother-given-an-electronic-tag-and-curfew-for-selling-a-goldfish-to-a-14-year-old.html

WTF is going on in this country?

[Hermione]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/pets/7538391/Great-grandmother-given-an-electronic-tag-and-curfew-for-selling-a-goldfish-to-a-14-year-old.html

WTF is going on in this country?

Damnation. I thought it was all drama over here now. Loopy British? Oh my.

[stuck]

The pair pleaded guilty at Trafford magistrates court to selling the fish to a person under 16 and for causing unnecessary suffering to a cockatiel by failing to provide appropriate care and treatment after council officers noticed a cockatiel bird in the shop in need of veterinary care with a broken leg. It was later put down.

Trafford Council said they had decided to investigate the shop, called Major Pets, in Sale, Greater Manchester following a complaint that it had sold a gerbil to a 14 year-old girl with learning difficulties, without the presence of a carer or parent.

But you're right, it's definitely the dawning of the new gulag.

"First they came for the negligent pet shop owners, and they punished them with minor fines and 10-week house arrests, but I said nothing because I was not a negligent pet shop owner."

[mancroft]

Another loony case:

A woman who forged references and lied on her CV to get an NHS job has been jailed for six months.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article7078237.ece

Seems a bit excessive to me.

[stuck]

She beat several other candidates to get the job, which she held for more than a year. But she was challenged by managers who became unhappy with her performance, and she admitted falsifying her application.

She had been paid £23,448 by the time her deception was uncovered, which the NHS trust failed to claim back through the court.

"And then they came for the incompetent resume forgers who profited 23,448 pounds from their fraud, but I said nothing because I did not forge my application, do my job incompetently, and defraud the government for 23,448 pounds..."

[Karl]

I actually saw this. I actually agree with the law in principle on animal rights ground, but doing a sting operation to convict an elderly woman for selling live fish is a bit much. A warning probably would have worked.

I think the government occassionally does things like this just to assert its authority and placate people who think the government is too lax.

[Lurker]

Is this all you ever think about?

[Architectonic]

Is this all you ever think about?

Mancroft doesn't "think", so much as "respond".

[mancroft]

Is this all you ever think about?

Baaaaa.