Pet owners in the northern Italian city of Monza, best known for its Formula 1 Grand Prix, have become the first in Italy to be banned from keeping their goldfish in bowls.

The town council passed a ruling "on the treatment of domestic animals, which will go into effect in a fortnight", council official Giampietro Mosca said.

The text, acknowledged as "avant-garde" by its backer, bans the sale of coloured chicks at fairs, the use of small animals as competition prizes as well as outlawing goldfish bowls.

"A fish kept in a bowl has a distorted view of reality...and suffers because of this," Mr Mosca said.

"Also, this type of receptacle generally doesn't have a filter and doesn't allow for good oxygenation of the water, unlike in rectangular aquariums.

"This story about the goldfish, which has gone around Italy, seems a little irrelevant and people have mocked it a bit, but it has a very specific educational sense, especially for the little ones."

Other regions, such as Reggio Emilia, have rules on the treatment of animals derived from a 1991 national law, but the goldfish clause is a "singularity of Monza", according to Mr Mosca.

--AFP