In a video circulating on the internet you can see a number of men sitting at a table near the cafe. They have two bags in which goldfish swim, which they empty into a beer glass.
One of the men takes the glass, gobbles it back in one go and throws another glass of beer after it. In the background his friends stop laughing.
Respect for animals
Café owner Van Hek got to see the video last weekend and it did not make him happy. “I was disgusted. You have two kinds of people at events like this: one laughs about it and has forgotten it tomorrow, the other thinks it is disgusting and is going to do something. I belong to the latter group.”
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Van Hek himself has goldfish in his pond and he grew up on a farm. “I’ve learned that you have to respect animals. You have to take good care of them. Give them food and drink on time.”
He was therefore not happy with the video. His first thought was: how am I going to fix this? “I thought about that for 24 hours. You can’t decide that in a few minutes. I’m responsible for what happens at my cafe and I want to limit the damage as much as possible.”
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What will happen to the goldfish?
A swallowed goldfish ‘simply dies very quickly’, owner of koi and pond center De Karper Eric van der Bij told earlier to Editie NL. “The fish ends up in the stomach acid, which is so strong that the fish can no longer breathe and die.”
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‘Not by the handle’
One thing was clear to him: “This is unacceptable.” And so he had a hearty conversation with the friends of the “goldfish swallower.” “They all regret it.”
The man who swallowed the fish has now been banned from pubs for one year. “That’s the maximum time of such a ban. I don’t think this will be done. I disagree that this has happened and I’m completely done with that person.”
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“The man called me, but he’s laconic about it. He doesn’t have much trouble swallowing the fish. Well, he doesn’t see the point in the ban.”
Video offline
Van Hek tried to get the video off the internet because of the negative publicity. According to him, other people are walking away because of this incident. But taking it offline did not work. “Only the person who posted it can do that, but unfortunately I don’t know who that is.”
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It is not the first time that a goldfish has been swallowed. For example, a student was reported at the end of last year who swallowed a live goldfish.
RTL News approached the police to find out whether an investigation has been started and whether it is a criminal offense to swallow live goldfish, but the police were unable to answer that today.
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