Hey spearos,
I thought I would see what you guys think of this article I found on an Alberta fishery website.
Fish can't feel pain or fear, university study concludes
By: Rajeev Syal
Sunday Telegraph
Sunday, February 09, 2003
http://www.canada.com/search/story.aspx?id=9ae2fac5-9dbf-4e02-acce-24e9096b11de
LONDON - Anglers rest easy. Fish can't feel pain, the largest study into piscine neurology has concluded.
An academic study comparing the nervous systems and responses of fish and mammals has found that their brains are not sufficiently developed to allow them to sense pain or fear.
The study is the work of James D. Rose, a professor of zoology and physiology at the University of Wyoming, who has been working on questions of neurology for almost 30 years.
He has examined data concerning animals and their responses to pain and stimulus from scores of studies collected over the last 15 years.
His report, published in the American academic journal Reviews of Fisheries Science, has concluded that awareness of pain depends on functions of specific regions of the cerebral cortex that fish do not possess.
Rose, 60, said that previous studies which had indicated that fish can feel pain had confused "nociception" -- responding to a threatening stimulus -- with feeling pain.
"Pain is predicated on awareness," he said. "The key issue is the distinction between nociception and pain.
"A person who is anaesthetized in an operating theatre will still respond physically to an external stimulus, but he or she will not feel pain. Anyone who has seen a chicken with its head cut off will know that, while its body can respond to stimuli, it cannot be feeling pain."
Rose said he was enormously concerned with the welfare of fish, but that in the wake of his findings, campaigners should concentrate on ensuring that they were able to enjoy clean and well-managed rivers and seas.
Despite the new findings, a spokesman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which has spent millions on a anti-angling campaign, said: "We believe that fishing is barbaric. Of course animals can feel pain.
"They have sensitivity, if only to avoid predators."
end article
To me I guess it is a matter of how you define "pain". A fish may not have a higher cognitive awarness of "pain", but it would still seem that the experience of a threatening stimulus would be a form of "suffering". So regardless, I will try to dispatch the fish as fast as possible and hopefully minimize any unnecessary suffering.
Lee
I thought I would see what you guys think of this article I found on an Alberta fishery website.
Fish can't feel pain or fear, university study concludes
By: Rajeev Syal
Sunday Telegraph
Sunday, February 09, 2003
http://www.canada.com/search/story.aspx?id=9ae2fac5-9dbf-4e02-acce-24e9096b11de
LONDON - Anglers rest easy. Fish can't feel pain, the largest study into piscine neurology has concluded.
An academic study comparing the nervous systems and responses of fish and mammals has found that their brains are not sufficiently developed to allow them to sense pain or fear.
The study is the work of James D. Rose, a professor of zoology and physiology at the University of Wyoming, who has been working on questions of neurology for almost 30 years.
He has examined data concerning animals and their responses to pain and stimulus from scores of studies collected over the last 15 years.
His report, published in the American academic journal Reviews of Fisheries Science, has concluded that awareness of pain depends on functions of specific regions of the cerebral cortex that fish do not possess.
Rose, 60, said that previous studies which had indicated that fish can feel pain had confused "nociception" -- responding to a threatening stimulus -- with feeling pain.
"Pain is predicated on awareness," he said. "The key issue is the distinction between nociception and pain.
"A person who is anaesthetized in an operating theatre will still respond physically to an external stimulus, but he or she will not feel pain. Anyone who has seen a chicken with its head cut off will know that, while its body can respond to stimuli, it cannot be feeling pain."
Rose said he was enormously concerned with the welfare of fish, but that in the wake of his findings, campaigners should concentrate on ensuring that they were able to enjoy clean and well-managed rivers and seas.
Despite the new findings, a spokesman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which has spent millions on a anti-angling campaign, said: "We believe that fishing is barbaric. Of course animals can feel pain.
"They have sensitivity, if only to avoid predators."
end article
To me I guess it is a matter of how you define "pain". A fish may not have a higher cognitive awarness of "pain", but it would still seem that the experience of a threatening stimulus would be a form of "suffering". So regardless, I will try to dispatch the fish as fast as possible and hopefully minimize any unnecessary suffering.
Lee
:blackeye