Do Fish feel pain?

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It doesn't matter if they do feel pain does it? They can't exactly write a complaint to the proper authorities about it....

Besides, we eat fish so we are simply hunting. Do people care about the lion's prey feeling pain when they are hunted? Nope, not really. What's the difference here...
 
Yes thats true but some people would have taken that report as fact after reading it in the paper or seeing it on the news.

And thats what the antis want.

Paul
 
I think the difference is that we have the ability to kill animals without pain. so y kill them with pain when we can do it without. so i dont mind eating meat and wouldnt stop because we r supposesd to. (our bodies r made to) and i love bacon. with brown source. but i would prefer it if my animals were looked after before they die and then dies as painlessly as possible.
 
It has been proven that fish have the neuronal (nerves) capability which might enable them to feel pain. They also respond in different ways to a "painful" experience - ways that could not be attributed to a 'reflex action'. However, it is absolutely impossible to tell whether fish actually can feel pain. We have a bad habit of comparing behavioural responses to our own behaviour. Not really wise thing to do considering we're absolutely nothing like fish.

Basically animal rights activists have absolutely NO solid fact whatsoever on which to base their arguments. But, you know them, they'll use any excuse to don their wellies and floaty skirts and go tramping through London waving their hippy placards ;) (please note the wink, I'm JOKING - I have nothing against hippies).
 
Right, time to be blasphemous.

Whether fish feel pain or not is much like if god exists or not. There is no solid proof that god does exist, or that fish feel pain. However, equally there is no proof that god doesnt exist, or that fish don't feel pain.

So it comes down to personal belief about whether you feel god exists or fish feel pain. Neither side can scientifically be proven.


(that has to be the worst analogy ever :p)
 
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One of the ways I look at it is if you put your hand under a cold tap for a while it will soon become very painfull and soon after it will become numb and you won't feel a thing even if you stuck a knife through your hand.

Now fish live at these temps all the time. Temps that would soon kill a human so how can they compare human physiology to that of a fish.

Also in the sneddon report she says the fish that were injected with venom showed signs of stress which is understandable. But the fish that were injected with saline did not, proving that its not the injection that harmed the fish but the substance they injected.

Paul
 
Originally posted by pds
Now fish live at these temps all the time. Temps that would soon kill a human so how can they compare human physiology to that of a fish.
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Sorry but you just can't make that analogy. Not even about high and low temps. Every animal is adapted to its environment and has different upper and lower temperature thresholds, so what's cold for humans may be warm for fish. If you put coldwater fish in water at 30 degrees c, they'd almost certainly die. You're right about them not being able to compare human physiology/behaviour to fish physiology/behaviour though.

It's a common problem in behavioural studies, we humanise our subjects even when we know full well that our behavioural repertoires are worlds apart.
 
Originally posted by Lostkat
Sorry but you just can't make that analogy. Not even about high and low temps. Every animal is adapted to its environment and has different upper and lower temperature thresholds, so what's cold for humans may be warm for fish. If you put coldwater fish in water at 30 degrees c, they'd almost certainly die. You're right about them not being able to compare human physiology/behaviour to fish physiology/behaviour though.

It's a common problem in behavioural studies, we humanise our subjects even when we know full well that our behavioural repertoires are worlds apart.
Click to expand...

Touche'. I think i'll have to rethink thatt one

Paul
 
Originally posted by Lostkat
It has been proven that fish have the neuronal (nerves) capability which might enable them to feel pain. They also respond in different ways to a "painful" experience - ways that could not be attributed to a 'reflex action'. However, it is absolutely impossible to tell whether fish actually can feel pain. We have a bad habit of comparing behavioural responses to our own behaviour. Not really wise thing to do considering we're absolutely nothing like fish.

Basically animal rights activists have absolutely NO solid fact whatsoever on which to base their arguments. But, you know them, they'll use any excuse to don their wellies and floaty skirts and go tramping through London waving their hippy placards ;) (please note the wink, I'm JOKING - I have nothing against hippies).
Click to expand...

I think insects probably feel pain,i used to test this out when i was a kid,i used to sit outside pulling legs off insects,stabbing them with needles,chopping there heads off etc etc
and after some years i noticed there response was pretty much that they felt pain,so you pull there leg off and you notice its head going back and struggle increases.

I stabbed a moth in the chest with a toothpick and its tongue stuck out real long and seemed to choke up its guts.

So id say all living things feel pain,including bacteria,and what your body kills all the time possibly and everything living has a consciousness one way or another i.e aware of itself.
 
weather they feel pain or not these are physical reactions to something causeing damage to the body, if you got stabed in the chest and it didnt hurt you would still struggle, pain just brings it to your attention..
pain for us is obviously unplesent, gives us added insentive not to do it again and gives us the added urgency value to get out of the situation. for a fish this might be a similar reaction, however i dont think it would be particuarly unplesent as it is not neccary, the fish wouldnt remember not to get itself into a certain situation as it wouldnt have the mental capacity, it has the instinct to know to avoid a preditor but not through learning. a human might pick up a cute looking cat and then have its arm bitten off, he or she would then either never pick up a cat again or be very nervous arround them...
but then not being or haveing ever been a fish (afik) i dont know if fish feel pain as i define it
 
But if i stamp on your foot,what if i say the same about you,i cant tell by looking at you that you feel pain or that you feel it the same as i,your reaction doesnt tell me anything,but it is repeatable,that is: if i stamp on your foot the same way many times,the reflex and response will seem to be very much the same,of coarse it tells us you feel pain,and we can say the same about everything.

Whether it feels pain or not,i dont care,who cares? there only fish,i think people are turning into wimps,
"urrgh arrgh ahhh they feel pain,poor things" SHUT UP i dont care,i dont care whether they feel like we do,im human there fish and fish are stupid and suck,im better than a fish.

You gotta look at it like that otherwise youll turn into a sissy.
 
but if you stamped on my foot and i wasnt looking i would know bacause my nervous system would tell me, by means of pain sensation, i would probably swear and then move my foot... and keep sewaring... then make sure i never stood next to you again.
the thing is pain is part of being a liveing thing, to continue liveing the body must function, if somebody comes allong and sticks a pole in my chest my organs get punctured and my body is no longer able to function, i loose consiousness and then die. it would be somthing that would trouble me for years if i managed to survive, i would live in perpetual fear of poles, because it hurt + i might die. if i were a fish and the same happened poles would still just be poles, i would swim past without a care in the world i would not have the mental capacity to rember that it hurt or rember being stabed almost to death with said pole, makeing pain as we know it pritty useless..

i dont loose any sleep over it, i am aware of the fact im higher up the food chain than a fish or insects for that matter, i dont need to pull anythings legs off or stabv it with a tooth pick to make myself feel big either.. i just hope you dont believe in reincarnation DOOM :p
 
I'm not sure whether fish can feel pain or not but there must be some form of distress when you hook it and it fights to get away.

I don't really care either way though, I'll make sure they're out of their misery with a batter round the head with a big brass priest :D
 
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