Outrage Over Japan Skating Rink Strangely Freezing 5,000 Fish Into The Ground

A theme park in Japan has been the subject of public outrage after freezing 5,000 sea creatures into the floor of an ice skating rink. The attraction, titled the “Freezing Port,” was forced to close on Sunday after receiving such heavy backlash on social media.

As part of a special winter attraction, Japan’s Space World theme park embedded fish, crabs, and other types of shellfish into the ice, according to CNN.

On the park’s official Facebook page, Space World advertised the attraction as a “world first” event and shared photos with captions including “I am d… d… drowning, s… s… suffocating.”

Toshimi Takeda, the manager at Space World, said that immediately after the attraction was broadcast on local television, the park began receiving a brutal reaction on social media.

“We were shocked to hear the reaction as the ice skate rink was very popular since it opened two weeks ago, we had an unprecedented number of visitors,” Takeda said.

“(But) we had endless opinions about the project, we were shocked … We are sorry for the project and decided to close the rink on that night.”

The park plans to take measures to diffuse the tension by unfreezing the skate rink to remove the fish, and then hold an “appropriate religious service” before using the sea creatures as fertilizer.

Even though the Space World manager maintains that the fish were dead before being frozen into the ice skating rink and that they were purchased at a local fish market, that didn’t stop social media users from voicing their outrage.

“Why is it fun to skate over the frozen?” a Japanese Facebook page by the name Relief Pain Animals wrote. “It is shocking that this kind of idea was taken up normally in Japan … This is the worst attraction educationally.”

One social media user named Miura Tsubasa said, “This really makes me upset. Do you think children are happy to see this fish in skate rink?”

“You have no soul to plan such an even to begin with,” another social media user named Misaki said.

The Space World theme park released a statement in order to offer an apology to everyone who found the attraction “uncomfortable.”

“Therefore we will cancel the event of the Ice Museum from today,” the statement read.

What are your thoughts on this Japanese theme park displaying frozen sea creatures as an attraction?

[H/T CNN]