Small Animal Keychains in China Should Be Banned

Last Updated on May 30, 2021

Many souvenir shops in China carry a whole lot of random stuff. You can find pretty much anything in any shop. There’s everything from t-shirts and necklaces to small animals you can carry around on a keychain.

How such a thing is allowed, I will never understand.

I was horrified to find an entire bucket filled with these small animal keychains in China. Each individual keychain contains a small bag of air, partially filled with some sort of a colored liquid, and a living animal trapped inside.

First of all, I don’t understand how this works.

How long does the oxygen supply in each bag last? Why aren’t these animals suffocating? There aren’t any holes and the bags don’t appear to open. What is keeping these animals alive? Is the colored liquid their food supply? What about the waste they produce? Do they swim in it? Won’t it accumulate over time to a point where having this LIVING animal on your keychain isn’t “cute” anymore?

Do people really think it is okay to carry a small animal with them in a plastic bag all day? I feel like the animal would quickly die just from being banged around in the pouch.

I know some people buy these so they can set the animals free but that only increases demand for the product and results in the store purchasing more of them. I think it’s best to refrain from feeding into this messed-up business so that maybe these lines of keychains will be discontinued. Think long-term. I can only hope that one day they will be banned from stores all across China.

After photographing these animal keychains and asking my friend not to buy one, I was asked by a storeowner to leave their shop.

7 Comments

  1. silverbeans

    Oh my god, I’ve never seen this. I’m beyond shocked. I thought you were referring to those keychains with insects in them until I saw the little turtle. Why must people come up with ideas like these? There’s tons of other ways to make money…

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