Animal lovers are known to go to extraordinary lengths to cure any ailments afflicting their beloved pets, but one couple from Australia has set the bar impossibly high by engaging surgeons to remove a head tumour – from their goldfish.
10-year-old George the Goldfish wasn’t in a position to report on his own symptoms but that didn’t deter his owner, Pip Joyce, who explained that George didn’t appear to be able to enjoy life as much as his pondmates. She told Australian Channel 7 News that “he didn’t join in as much with their afternoon party games.”
Dr Tristan Rich was the vet looking after George and when his owners decided not to have him put to sleep, he opted instead to remove the tumour. The surgery cost around €140 and was an hour long. It involved setting up three buckets and a lot of anaesthetic to make sure George didn’t wake up during the procedure.
Once he was placed into a bucket of clean water and given some pain relief in recovery, George seems to have sprung back to himself fairly quickly, and he was happily swimming around in no time.
Dr. Tristan reckons that a newly-famous George could live up to another 20 years, but what do you think? Is it right to put a goldfish through a procedure like that? Let us know your opinion in the comments below.