A total of 53 animal protection organizations on Monday asked the director panel of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala to call off the goldfish magic at the Lantern Festival Gala.

At the 2011 Spring Festival Gala, a New Year's eve tradition for the Chinese, a magician named Fu Yandong performed a magic by using a whistle to instruct the goldfish to line up in water.

While gaining his fame with such a magic, Fu also triggered a debate about suspected animal maltreatment.

Magic fans later tried to uncover the secret on the Internet, speculating that magnets had been previously put into the goldfish's stomach. They agreed that it was too cruel to treat goldfish that way.

But Fu denied the speculation, claiming that he had just tamed the goldfish through magic manners.

Those animal protection groups also proposed that animal performances should be forbidden at any major show to prevent the audience from copying, which might lead to animal abuse, before comprehensive animal protection laws and regulations are formulated and enacted.