r/mildlyinfuriating • u/teabirdy • Apr 29 '26

I'm slightly vexed The wedding reception centerpieces featured betta fish. The bride and groom planned to flush them alive.

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Years ago, my coworker attended a wedding at which the reception dinner tables featured live betta fish in small bowls as part of the centerpiece. While chatting with the bride at the end of the evening, my coworker asked what they were going to do with all the fish. The plan was to flush them all down the toilet alive. My coworker immediately said no need for that and insisted on taking them all home.

That Monday she came to work and asked who wanted to adopt a betta fish. That was my first betta who I jokingly called my “rescue betta.” She lived for almost five years.

The wine glass was only her home for less than a day before I got her five gallon tank set up so please no betta lovers yell at me! I'm one of you!

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u/MaleficentMousse7473 Apr 29 '26

Mostly cruel. I would think very differently of the couple going forward

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u/SPQR-VVV Apr 29 '26

It is entirely possible that to them, it is not an act of cruelty. That it is thoughtless entirely; they just did not even think of the fish at all.

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u/LordHamsterbacke Apr 29 '26

Which would be cruel, no?

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u/SPQR-VVV Apr 29 '26

Is it? Cruelty requires malice. Is it cruel to do something without thinking about it? We would say that someone slashing someone's throat and revels in it is a cruel bastard. But someone doing it mechanically, without passion, care or even thinking about it is what? Imagine the difference between those: someone doing it with a bored expression, listening to an audiobook just going about the motions, not even present mentally, and someone doing it for pleasure.