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Fish Feel Pain, Science Shows — But Humans Are Reluctant To Believe It

From Seth Millstein, SentientMedia.org
January 2024

Multiple studies have demonstrated that fish both possess the anatomy necessary to produce pain and exhibit all of the standard biological responses to noxious stimuli that we would expect if they could feel pain. And if fish can feel pain, that means the fishing industry is inflicting mass suffering on an almost inconceivable scale.

netted Fishes

The number of fish who die annually from human activities surpasses that of any other vertebrate, and yet many people still believe that it’s more ethically permissible to kill a fish than, say, a pig or a cow. This may be because fish look and behave so radically differently from humans; the underwater, otherworldly life of a fish is so distinctly inhuman that it’s difficult to believe that their experiences are in any way like ours. But their experiences are like ours — at least, as far as the scientific proof that fish also feel pain goes.

Multiple studies have demonstrated that fish both possess the anatomy necessary to produce pain and exhibit all of the standard biological responses to noxious stimuli that we would expect if they could feel pain. And if fish can feel pain, that means the fishing industry is inflicting mass suffering on an almost inconceivable scale.

“Be it recreational angling, large-scale fisheries, ornamental fish — any way that we use fish, we need to consider treating them better, as if they experience pain,” Dr. Lynn Sneddon, director of Bioveterinary Science at Liverpool University, tells Science Focus. “We should treat them with the same consideration we afford to mammals and birds.”

When one considers the sheer scale at which fish are being killed, the suffering of fish is worth dwelling on.

Including:

  • Are Fish Capable of Feeling Pain?
  • Experiments That Prove Fish Feel Pain
  • Effects of Analgesics on Fish
  • Avoidance Learning in Fish
  • Do Fish Feel Pain When They Get Hooked?
  • Do Fish Feel Pain When They Suffocate?
  • Why Do People Believe That Fish Can’t Feel Pain?
  • Is Fishing Cruel?

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Please read the ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE.

 

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