Do fish feel pain?
February 1st 2008 20:23
Okay! I'll throw my hat into the ring and offer my two cents!
You've probably seen the ads from the humane society or PETA--those guilt inducing questions like, "Would you put a fish hook in your dog's lip?" I think I even saw a cartoon (or was it a drawing?) of a dog with a fish hook in its lip.
Before we go on, here's my take--WE'RE AT THE TOP OF THE FOOD CHAIN, DUDE! LIGHTEN UP!
All told, this is a debate I'd rather not enter because even the world's greatest scientists can't agree on this topic. One side says one thing, the other side counters and it goes on and on!
Pain is a very subjective sensation and involves complicated emotional and neurological responses. When a fish flinches or moves away from something unpleasant, what we're seeing MAY be simply a reflex reacting to noxious stimuli!
Of the thousands of fish species out there, are we to believe that science has definitively studied each one to the point that humans can be told, hands down, that we're inflicting pain on animals--several of which have a brain the size of a pea or smaller?
I'm certainly no icthiologist but I DO know that the human nervous system is much more complex than that of a fish! The bottom line is that what hurts us may not hurt them.
Here's the theory I buy into--predatory fish must NOT feel pain as we know it. How else can you explain spiny fins or shards of broken turtle shell that stab into a fish's mouth with each bite?
You've probably seen the ads from the humane society or PETA--those guilt inducing questions like, "Would you put a fish hook in your dog's lip?" I think I even saw a cartoon (or was it a drawing?) of a dog with a fish hook in its lip.
Before we go on, here's my take--WE'RE AT THE TOP OF THE FOOD CHAIN, DUDE! LIGHTEN UP!
All told, this is a debate I'd rather not enter because even the world's greatest scientists can't agree on this topic. One side says one thing, the other side counters and it goes on and on!
Pain is a very subjective sensation and involves complicated emotional and neurological responses. When a fish flinches or moves away from something unpleasant, what we're seeing MAY be simply a reflex reacting to noxious stimuli!
Of the thousands of fish species out there, are we to believe that science has definitively studied each one to the point that humans can be told, hands down, that we're inflicting pain on animals--several of which have a brain the size of a pea or smaller?
I'm certainly no icthiologist but I DO know that the human nervous system is much more complex than that of a fish! The bottom line is that what hurts us may not hurt them.
Here's the theory I buy into--predatory fish must NOT feel pain as we know it. How else can you explain spiny fins or shards of broken turtle shell that stab into a fish's mouth with each bite?
Until next time--watch yourself and watch your line!
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