Can a fish be a tool?
Can a fish be a tool? That's the legal question at the centre of a case in Arizona involving a pedicurist who used live, toothless fish to "smooth" clients' feet by sucking off dry skin. The pedicurist is suing the regulator for shutting down her business after she refused to comply with a ruling that the fish are tools and must be disinfected and kept in dry storage after use.
Garra Rufa carp are a toothless two-inch fish who suck off dry skin and have been used to allegedly leave customers, who sit with their feet in ponds of these carp, with smooth, soft feet. Although popular in China, Japan and Turkey, fish pedicures were ruled to be a health hazard in Washington state on the grounds that the fish could spread disease from client to client. The judge in that case ruled that the classification of a fish as a “tool” was proper because “it is the fish who are delivering the pedicure service by … nibbling on a client’s foot”. The judge in this instance also ruled that fish can carry parasites harmful to humans and that as they couldn’t adequately be sterilised, the service must stop.
The Arizona State Board of Cosmetology (cosmetology is the practice of beautifying face, hair and skin) took the view that fish therapy violates the law concerning tool sanitation. One regulation requires that “any tool of piece of equipment” used in a skin exfoliation must be “stored in a dry storage” (difficult for fish) and disinfected after use (also difficult). The Board subsequently ruled that the owner of the Arizona business must discontinue the fish pedicure service. The owner has laid a civil rights action which argues that the regulator has unlawfully infringed her economic liberty because its worries about the dangers of fish foot-smoothing are unfounded.
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