Live Animals Trapped In Plastic Bags Sold as Key Chains in Horrifying Chinese Souvenir Scheme

live animal key chains

If your heart has ever ached looking at pictures of animals pent up in tiny pet store cages or pens at the zoo, prepare to be outraged. CNN and other internet sources have uncovered a souvenir scheme in China that seems like a sick joke, but isn't. Live animals—turtles, fish, lizards and other amphibians—are being trapped in tiny plastic bags and sold as decorative key chains. Vendors claim that the bag contains crystallized oxygen and nutrients designed to keep the animals alive, but in reality, most die within a day or less due to oxygen deprivation. What's even more shocking is that thanks to China's lax animal protection laws, most customers are encouraged to microwave and then eat the animals upon their demise.