Scientists say: Fish don't feel pain

[DBM]

My first hatchery job out of college I was working for a old-timer who was extremely smart - he invented the belt feeder (people in the aquaculture business know what this is) and also had a hand in the development of the first automatic garage door openers.
I can still remember more than ten years later the time he told me he believes fish don't feel pain. I respected the guy, but figured this time he'd been into the Shnappes or something. Turns out he may have been right.

http://www.washtimes.com/world/20030210-3432530.htm

So does this mean keeping a large fish in a small aquarium is no different than letting your houseplant become rootbound?

 

[dizzy]

Doug,
You ever see a fish wince when a cleaner wrasse plucks a parasite. I have seen fish turn and chase the cleaners and act like they wanted to get even. It sure looks the fish was feeling pain or unpleasantness.

 

[Anonymous]

define 'feel', and 'pain' :wink:

 

[danmhippo]

Heh, it's like aliens wondering if humans feel pain........

 

[Anonymous]

Doug,
You ever see a fish wince when a cleaner wrasse plucks a parasite. I have seen fish turn and chase the cleaners and act like they wanted to get even. It sure looks the fish was feeling pain or unpleasantness.

Mr. Rose, said previous studies that indicated fish can feel pain had confused "nociception" — responding to a threatening stimulus — with feeling pain.
"Pain is predicated on awareness," he said. "A person who is anaesthetized in an operating theater will still respond physically to an external stimulus, but he or she will not feel pain.

It's entirely possible that such a sensory stimulus would not result in what humans consider pain. A threat stimulus is gonna trigger fight or flight and thus that could explain a fight response as well.

 

[Anonymous]

Despite the new findings, a spokesman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which has spent millions on an anti-angling campaign, said: "We believe that fishing is barbaric. Of course animals can feel pain. They have sensitivity, if only to avoid predators."

LOL God Forbid PETA would let science get in the way of an agenda :roll:

 

[naesco]

Yeh and a deer doesn`t feel the hunters bullet. :wink:

 

[John_Brandt]

Topic has been dragged up from the abyss.

 

[alias]

sounds like bs :?