There comes a sad moment in every child’s life when they learn what death means, and for this little boy it was the moment he flushed his dead goldfish down the toilet.

In the YouTube video posted by the heartbroken boy’s mother, the toddler kisses his little orange friend goodbye before he tells his mum he’s going to “flush him down the toilet!”

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Clearly he has received a full explanation of why Goldy needs to go bye-bye, and he seems to be on board, intellectually at least, until the flush, which triggers the waterworks in more ways than one.

It’s when he watches his pet swirl down the drain that the full weight of the situation hits him and he begins to sob uncontrollably.

It also raises the question about the appropriate way to dispose of a beloved pet. The toilet is the classic means of disposing of a fish – it’s clean, it’s fast, it’s convenient. It’s a watery grave for a watery creature. But it’s also a toilet – not a place we tend to put beloved things.

While the loo has the benefit of disposing of the fish forever, it also appears traumatic for this little disposer. We’d like to ask, what’s so bad about an old match box and a modest ceremony in the back garden?