R.I.P.
Posted on 06/05/2003 10:23:28 PM PDT by gd124
SANTA CRUZ — A 20-pound fish named Midas is dead, and the county District Attorney’s Office will soon be on the case.
A member of the UC Santa Cruz fraternity Delta Omega Chi, now taking part in an MTV reality show, said two members were the koi-snatching culprits, but that the frat as a whole had nothing to do with the incident.
Campus spokeswoman Liz Irwin confirmed two students have admitted filching the fish from a Porter College pond in the wee hours of May 20, but she declined to name them.
Campus police turned the case over to the district attorney Tuesday after interviewing Porter staffers and students, including an apparent eyewitness, who said thieves used a stolen rake to swat the gentle, 3- foot-long fish out of the pond, killed it and later cooked it.
Irwin said she did not have particulars on the fish’s fate, only that "the expectation is that the fish is no longer alive."
District Attorney Bob Lee said Tuesday it would be premature to comment.
The county’s top prosecutor generally doesn’t get wrapped up in cases involving exotic relatives of carp. But this case involves the death of a gentle Japanese koi whose 50-plus-year lifespan was cut short last month. The metallic-gold fish lived in a pond with 15 fellow koi and a few goldfish.
The fish was a mini-celebrity on campus, especially among children at an on-campus day-care center, who took the news hard. A teacher said Midas was a favored attraction during field trips to the pond.
The fish incident has sparked some on-campus backlash against the frat, now taking part in MTV’s "Fraternity Life" series. September’s edition will feature the Santa Cruz frat, whose members live in a Lake Avenue house.
An MTV camera crew stood by Tuesday, filming, as a Delta Omega Chi member who identified himself as Casey stood at the door of the frat house and spoke to a reporter.
"Everyone in the fraternity says, ‘We have nothing to do with this. You guys dug your own hole, you take care of it,’ Casey said. "We don’t need them dragging down the organization. ... It’s an individual thing."
The film crew also distanced itself from the incident, saying MTV is not allowed to film on campus and was nowhere near the scene when the koi was swiped.
The fish was a 1995 gift of David Swanger, a UC Santa Cruz professor of education and creative writing who also gave the campus a big silvery koi.
"It was the jewel in that pond," he said Tuesday. "A lot of times koi put in there are sort of like mongrels, and this was a purebred. This had a pedigree."
Swanger bought the fish from a now-defunct aquarium shop in Capitola.
Midas cost $45 as a baby koi, Swanger said, but as a mature fish was worth "hundreds of dollars."
"It’s sad," he said. "I feel very bad for the students who formed an affectionate bond with this koi, and very bad for the students who perpetrated this. I feel worse for them because some- thing is wrong with their education. They would have to be somewhat disadvantaged morally and emotionally to do this."
Irwin said the students could face disciplinary action ranging from suspension to expulsion, depending on the findings of a student judiciary board.
The fish’s on-campus caretaker, Cecilia Kerridge, who showed up even on holidays to feed the whiskered fish, was furious about the killing.
"I am very, very upset about this," she said. "If you can kill a fish that is so big and so defenseless, it is like killing someone’s dog."
Contact Dan White at dwhite@santa-cruz.com.
R.I.P.
Hey, Santa Cruz High School won the Central Coast Section Div III baseball championships this year.
Go Cardinals!
ps, my son made all league first team outfield as a sophomore, and he's the starting QB on the football team. Santa Cruz has at least one decent person living there....
My point is: they seem to value a koi fish more so than a human fetus
She/he got your point ... she/he just signed onto the wrong forum.
There seems to be a subset of people who on every animal cruelty related thread will post something irrelevent about abortion. The point that I was trying to make is that they never post about abortion on threads about robberies or any other sort of crime, only animal cruelty.
I am so sorry to have "accidentally" posted on your thread. Maybe you will get the responses your looking for at the above link
My answer to your last question: As for the loss of a monetarily valuable fish, I hope University throws their ass(es) out of the university or some equally harsh punishment for a property crime. As for everyone in the article grieving about the fish whose "lifespan was cut short last month," all I can say is it was just a fish. I hope they avoid the canned tuna at the store and don't wear leather shoes.
If you were so motivated, I am sure you are clever enough to see how many abortion comments I have made in this forum (none up to this point). What inspired me to respond here is that the amount of grief expressed in this article over a fish makes it seem like an "Onion" parody.
I will rephrase the questions I was trying to get at in my "accidental" posting:
Would the people quoted in the article give as much respect and consideration to an unborn child as they do to a carp?
Would you give as much respect and consideration to an unborn child as you would to a carp?
I don't know
Would you give as much respect and consideration to an unborn child as you would to a carp?
Yes. It is not an either or situation. Koi are very intelligent and friendly fish. Pro-life people have pets as well and feel sad when they die.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.