--- title: Watch Boy Flushing His Beloved Pet Fish: Viral Video description: When Pierce Griffin's pet betta fish Cupid passed away, he wasn't ready to let go—and his mom posted his emotional response to Facebook. canonical: https://time.com/4639412/boy-mourns-fish/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-19T17:59:02.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:40:17.368Z og:title: Watch This Little Boy Tearfully Mourn His Beloved Pet Fish og:description: The end had come for fish Cupid, but this boy was not ready to say goodbye. og:url: https://time.com/4639412/boy-mourns-fish/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch This Little Boy Tearfully Mourn His Beloved Pet Fish twitter:description: The end had come for fish Cupid, but this boy was not ready to say goodbye. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # This Adorable Little Boy Reluctantly Flushing His Pet Fish Is Truly Poetic > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement.  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jan 19, 2017 5:59 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jan 19, 2017 5:59 PM UTC Fish are friends, too. At least, they are for this young boy, Pierce Griffin, who was clearly very attached to his blue Betta fish named Cupid. In a video posted by his mother, Dee Griffin, to Facebook, five-year-old Pierce is clearly devastated by the untimely [death of the marine creature](http://time.com/3858309/attention-spans-goldfish/?iid=sr-link2) while his mom encourages him to let go and flush the fish’s corpse down the toilet. “Thank you God for the fish, but I don’t want to!” he says; according to Dee’s Facebook posting, he had lasted as a pet for about a month. At Pierce’s last words, “Bye-bye Cupid,” the truth of mortality and loss hits him and he collapses into wails. He holds onto hope until the last second—”I see him moving!”—but eventually succumbs to the morbid reality and dumps his beloved Betta into the porcelain bowl, never to be seen again. “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, water to water,” intones his mom rather poetically as the fish swirls away into the sewer. 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