Trip to the Asian Food Market

I stopped by the local Asian food market with my friend Charlene tonight. Overall it was a great place to go to, with lots and lots of foods I’ve never seen before. There were so many things there I wanted to buy and learn how to use in the kitchen. It was great.

Wanting to see as much as I could, I walked over to the butcher/fish monger area and took a look at the fish. There were a bunch of live sea creatures. I can’t say I was really surprised by the living conditions, just disappointed.

Each fish tank had loads of animals imprisoned within. The lobsters and crabs were living on top of each other, layer upon layer. Many of the live catfish had open sores, which I suspect were wounds inflicted by their fellow inmates.

There was also a large display of beautiful parrot fish on ice nearby, which was particularly heartbreaking.

I feel I should say that these conditions are by no means unique to the market I visited. Just about any local grocery store that houses live sea creatures is likely to be home to similar arrangements. However, I think this fact makes reality all the more tragic. It’s shameful to see such little empathy for our fellow Earthlings.

In the end, isn’t that all we are? Earthlings. We don’t share a common humanity with non-human animals in the way we do with our fellow human beings, but we do share the Earth. Too often we forget that the Earth belongs to all creatures who call it home—not only humans.