Kelly McHugh made her way up to the bar to order a round of shots for her friends. Unsure of what type of shot to order, she referred to the list of “specials” for that particular night.

“I’ll take five goldfish shots, please,” she told the bartender.

Expecting to receive five fruity shots, perhaps similar to the Swedish Fish shots that she had enjoyed on previous outings, Kelly was instead shocked at what was placed before her.

Five live goldfish, lined up in shot glasses, were swimming in front of her. Kelly clasped a hand over her mouth in horror.

“Is this a joke?! Please take them back!” Flustered, Kelly insisted that the bartender return the fish to their bowl that she had just then noticed in the corner of the bar. The bartender shrugged as he gathered up the shot glasses and emptied them back into the bowl of fish.

To Kelly, a vegan, the idea of almost taking a shot of live goldfish was beyond appalling. However, every Tuesday night, at a popular Main Street bar that wishes to remain nameless, customers are ordering these goldfish shots and throwing them back for $2 a piece.

“I’ve seen people take up to seven shots of goldfish in a row,” one bartender said. “Mostly it’s fraternity guys who are already drunk, but sometimes people just come in off the street and want to try it.”

Though the bar insists that the goldfish are not necessarily meant to be consumed and that many people choose to take the fish home as pets, not everyone is buying the story.

“The fish are advertised as shots and that is what people are doing with them; it is a bar, not a pet store,” says Kelly, who has since started up her own not-for-profit animal rights organization, Speaking Out For Animals (SOFA). “This is just a cheap and sleazy way for the bar to make money. They are charging people $2 for a ten-cent goldfish and the shots are being taken for entertainment value. It is not right.”

The bartender admits it is entertaining. “Someone will order a shot and everyone will gather around them to watch them take it,” he said. “People do it to get attention.”

While it may draw a crowd, is doing a shot of live goldfish animal cruelty? Patty Moll, a representative of the Erie County chapter of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) thinks so.

“I think that it may be a chargeable thing,” she said. “But although it is probably considered cruelty, it’s extremely difficult to get cases like this looked at and remedied.”

“It is hard enough for us to get a judge to consider a case where a kid has tied up a dog and set fire to it,” Moll added, “let alone a case of cruelty against a goldfish.”

In her years at the SPCA, she has never heard of charges being brought against suspects of goldfish cruelty. The practice of drinking goldfish as shots, however, is not that unusual.

In a similar case, a bar in Alberta, Canada was brought under scrutiny when David Beart, an animal lover and creator of ThePetProfessor.com, a website dedicated to pets and their owners, witnessed shots of goldfish being taken by other customers. In contrast with the Main Street bar, though, the fish were actually being submerged in alcohol before the shot was taken. (Two different bartenders at the Buffalo bar have confirmed that placing the fish in alcohol is strictly prohibited at their establishment.) Mr. Beart quickly reported the incident to the city of Alberta and after the story was publicized, the shots were taken off the menu. Still, Mr. Beart found the case to be extremely disturbing.

“What concerned me is that the city [of Alberta] turned a blind eye to the problem until it was in the media,” he said. “The day after the story was released, it was in the media, and the practice [of goldfish shots] stopped.”

Ultimately, an investigation by the health department ensured that goldfish shots would never return to the bar.

So, will the goldfish in Buffalo reach a similar fate and be saved from the mouths of audacious customers each Tuesday, or is this interesting take on sushi destined to remain a staple of University at Buffalo nightlife?

“I really hope that this ridiculous practice of drinking a live animal for fun will come to an end and soon,” says Kelly. “If it is inhumane to place a fish in alcohol, it boggles my mind that no one can figure out that it is also inhumane to be eating them alive.”