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DEL.ICIO.USDo fish feel pain?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I love this question.
It’s one of the most visible dividing lines between outdoors people and animal-rights activists because the only ones to know the true answer are the fish themselves. And they ain’t talking.
I figured that with the warm spring weather prompting anglers to flock to area lakes and rivers to go fishing, opening up this conversation would at least be provocative. We’ll see, I suppose.
Both sides say they have science on their side.
Dr. James Rose of the University of Wyoming, who has studied animals’ reactions to painful stimuli for three decades, has concluded that fish do not have the brain system necessary to feel pain. They react to being hooked but don’t have the ability in its brain to define it as pain. In “Do Fish Feel Pain?” Rose wrote, “The facts about the neurological processes that generate pain make it highly unlikely that fish experience the emotional distress and suffering of pain. Thus, the struggles of a fish don’t signify suffering when the fish is seized in the talons of an osprey, when it is devoured while still alive by a Kodiak bear, or when it is caught by an angler.”
In 2003, a study at Edinburgh University and the Roslin Institute in the United Kingdom — one that is used by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in its Fishing Hurts campaign — concluded that fish feel “emotional stress” in response to pain stimuli. The study was based on subjecting anethesized trout to damaging stimuli. The research team, according to PETA, concluded that fish clearly experience pain in the same way as mammals, both physically and psychologically.
That’s enough with the science.
My take on this has always been from a simple observation. If fish feel pain, why would they eat things that would cause them pain? Bass eat crawfish, which I’m sure probably uses its pinchers to defend itself. I’ve been pinched, and man it hurts. With so many things a bass can eat, why do they keep coming back for a meal of crawfish? Saltwater species eat urchins, spiney fish like pinfish and sting rays. They keep coming back for a meal, too.
So what’s your take? Do fish feel pain? Do you care?
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Comments
By Russ
April 21, 2008 8:39 AM | Link to this
It’s as much a spiritual question as a scientific one…I can’t say it as well as C.S. Lewis did in “The Problem of Pain”, so if you can find a copy of that, he gives a Christian perspective on pain and our relationship as humans with the animal kingdom. He addresses the question of whether animals feel pain, and more importantly, why we as humans feel pain.
By Jim H.
April 21, 2008 11:01 AM | Link to this
I don’t know if fish do, but I did early this morning when a 2 lb largemouth bass that I caught at Lake Oconee shook his head at just the wrong moment (while I was unhooking him) and stuck one of those nice sharp Rat-L-Trap hooks into the side of my left middle finger! He got me back for sure. Despite this he was gently released to fight another day (so he can make some other angler bleed).
By Bubba J. Jakewoeicski
April 21, 2008 3:35 PM | Link to this
I thought this was an outdoor sports column. When I pick up fishing magazines, it’s to read about crankbaits, bass boats and fish finders, i.e. stuff with which to catch fish. This pansey is always righting pointy headed stuff like this, or maudlin pap. Surely the AJC can find a real outdoors writer, instead of this Yankee, suburban-trail-hiking sissy.
By Bubba J. Jakewoeicski
April 21, 2008 3:35 PM | Link to this
I thought this was an outdoor sports column. When I pick up fishing magazines, it’s to read about crankbaits, bass boats and fish finders, i.e. stuff with which to catch fish. This pansey is always writing pointy headed stuff like this, or maudlin pap. Surely the AJC can find a real outdoors writer, instead of this Yankee, suburban-trail-hiking sissy.
By Scott Bernarde
April 22, 2008 1:53 PM | Link to this
Bubba,
Thanks for the nice comments.
By Roger
April 22, 2008 4:51 PM | Link to this
I guess Bubba’s comments and Scott’s reply prove that fish do feel pain.
By henry C
April 23, 2008 11:31 AM | Link to this
I do not believe fish feel pain. However, like anything…stick a piece of steel where it does not belong and that fish will react like it might be in pain but is probably reacting out of FEAR. Most good ole’ boys love eating their fresh catch! I know I would be fearful once I felt the steel.
PS…..C’mon Bubba give Bernarde a break
HC
By Riverpirate
April 23, 2008 1:49 PM | Link to this
Does it matter? God put animals here for us to take and eat.
By ChampDawg
April 23, 2008 2:18 PM | Link to this
Don’t know, don’t care, it’s not relevant. If I catch ‘em and don’t want em, I’ll release ‘em. Unless a hook is caught in the throat or the gills get messed up, I’ve never seen a fish that when released didn’t swim on it’s merry way. If it’s injured like this or otherwise big enough to keep, it’s headed for the frying pan either way. So, pain or no pain, don’t freakin’ matter.
By Chiefs fan
April 23, 2008 4:53 PM | Link to this
Some hush puppies and cheese grits might ease their pain…
By JeremiahWright
April 24, 2008 10:49 AM | Link to this
I don’t know, but they’re fun to catch, and delicious to eat.
By Ancy
April 24, 2008 11:51 AM | Link to this
Personally, I dont think fish feel any kind of psychological or physical pain.
Their nervous systems are not complex enough to feel the pain.
Moreover, as human beings if we put our minds on matter hat on - we do not feel the pain till we think about it. Fishes do not think - hence no pain.
By Jeff in Roswell
April 24, 2008 1:58 PM | Link to this
I don’t really care what PETA (Pain ein the A$$) thinks. It’s an interesting topic from a science standpoint but, I don’t give a damn about it when it comes to harvesting a fish.
By Mrs. Warren
April 24, 2008 2:46 PM | Link to this
I don’t know about them feeling pain but they do automatically react to bad situations. Unfortunately I caused the slow-deaths of 2 of our very large outdoor goldfish by over-feeding. Now I’ve giving 11 fish the same amount of food for over a year and for some reason the morning we left for our vacation I saw 5 of them floating. I ran outside and to my surprise they were still alive but floating upside down. When I touched them they even swam upside down. I called my parents to come over and check on them later in the day. 4 floating now…. then 3…… then only 2… the 2 were still alive for a day… and didn’t make it. I guess they ate too much and it killed them. They seem affected by it to because they don’t all come up to the surface anymore when I give them food or clean out the pond. Its as if they know it was my fault. So its possible that they do feel pain, they bleed don’t they?
By Koz
April 24, 2008 2:47 PM | Link to this
I don’t know about fish, but that Buck I shot last year sure did feel it.
By gwarfan
April 24, 2008 3:05 PM | Link to this
If course they feel pain but they do not have emotional pain. Animals do not have souls. So catch them and eat them. Fried fish would not taste so good if you were not suppose to eat them.
By Roswellian
April 24, 2008 4:55 PM | Link to this
What’s up with both researchers describing “emotional pain”? If someone close to me dies, I cry and that is emotional pain. I seriously doubt fish have the complexity to feel that.
However, if I stick a finger on a hot burner I feel physical pain. Likewise, fish MUST feel physical pain, otherwise why do some sea animals have stinging defenses such as the anemone, jellyfish, and certain corals?
Fish that have adapted to live in anemones (think Nemo) and among the stinging tentacles of jellyfish have a layer of mucous that prevents the host animals from stinging. These symbiotic relationships protect the fish from other predators that would surely eat them.
The only deterrent from being eaten that these animals have are their stinging nematocysts. If they don’t cause fish to feel pain, then what is the purpose of their defenses?
By Jim W Harrison
April 25, 2008 9:34 AM | Link to this
The only way to correctly fish a red wiggler is to thread it on the hook and clip and save the remainder in the bait box for later use. The worms do not react to pain, but do get sluggish if temperatures are too warm.
By Roswell Ed
April 30, 2008 7:38 PM | Link to this
Sharks don’t care if they cause us pain when they eat us.
So I say quid pro quo!!!!!
What is wrong with you people. We are at the top of the food chain.
Act like it.
By finnieggann
June 9, 2008 2:36 PM | Link to this
I think its inconclusive to decide whether or not fish feel pain. The scientific stuff above was not enough for me. I am a huge bass fisherman,and I have never found it cruel to set the hook on a big bass. After all, the skin on bass’s mouth is very thin, and would probaly feel like a simple peircing to us humans. The only part that may be distressing for fish is staying above water for a certain amount of time. But I have heard a thousand times fish dont have nerves, and never once have I heard that they experience pain. But I still need my answer
By finnieggann
June 9, 2008 2:36 PM | Link to this
I think its inconclusive to decide whether or not fish feel pain. The scientific stuff above was not enough for me. I am a huge bass fisherman,and I have never found it cruel to set the hook on a big bass. After all, the skin on bass’s mouth is very thin, and would probaly feel like a simple peircing to us humans. The only part that may be distressing for fish is staying above water for a certain amount of time. But I have heard a thousand times fish dont have nerves, and never once have I heard that they experience pain. But I still need my answer
By ron
October 12, 2008 1:16 PM | Link to this
I love the comment by the moron that said ‘who cares if they feel pain, god put animals here for us to eat’. I f god gave us animals to eat, yet gave animals the ability to feel pain and fear, then god is a cruel MF and I’ll happily remain a vegetarian atheist. thanks to evolution meat eating neanderthals are on the way out anyway. yay heart disease!
By Natasha
October 18, 2008 1:37 PM | Link to this
Ron thats a really good comment!! im a vegetarian and thats true if animals are meant to be eaten y do they feel pain!!!
By Gobbs
January 22, 2009 2:38 PM | Link to this
Enough with the comments about God and putting animals on Earth. Several of the apostles were fishermen and Jesus had them feed fish to the masses. So, ask yourself, WWJD? He’d eat fish. The end.