Do fish feel pain?
- Thread starter Thehappypet
- Start date
Their study was "conclusive" that fish showed a negative reaction to painful stimuli. How someone interprets that finding is a question of their own intelligence.
What I found the most interesting was the comment at the end of the article about people in persistent vegetative states displaying similar behavior. If the human body is capable of reacting to painful stimuli while it is unconscious, it seems entirely possible that the fish is simply reacting to the stimulus without being aware of it. I'm not going to start experimenting on my fish, but it's certainly something to chew on.
These particular researchers concluded that the fish demonstrated a response eg reaction - they said they believed the response eg reaction to be similar to those experienced in humans. I don't recall the phrase "negative" reaction being used.
For starters fish are NOT humans! Next there are more than enough "reputable" scientist out there to contradict this particular research - though none of them either are fish none of them truly know the answer they can only theorize and as long as the research grants keep coming in they will keep doing so.
Next - implying that unless readers agree with these particular findings their intelligence should be questioned is totallly without merit and quite frankly unacceptable.
Response??? "Whether it can be classed as pain or not, Sneddon's work has identified that fish experience prolonged discomfort following an injection that would be painful to humans." Do you think prolonged discomfort is a positive reaction?
Why do you think scientist wouldn't want animals to feel pain? Hmmm...Do you think it has anything to do with the fact that all of their tests are done on animals? It is funny you pointed out that scientists depend upon grant money, then fail to see the obvious reason why they need to keep people believing that the animals they do their experiments on don't feel pain.
"It is of course impossible to really know whether another person is feeling pain". A statement like this deserves questioning IMO.
How about we assume fish DO feel pain, whether or not it is scientifically true and proven, and then we can carry on with our lives trying our best not to hurt them?
Again - I didnt see the phrase "prolonged discomfort" ... all I read was that the fish exhibited a response to certain stimuli - it wasnt and IMO cant be described as negative as you described before nor discomfort as you pointed out above.
Course for most wataugachickens comments are acceptable - most do not try to intentionally inflict pain onto other living organisms.
I firmly believe fish conciously feel pain and suffer. In some cases, I've seen something that can't be described as anything different than remorse (at least that's what I call when a fish guards another dying fish and stays beside it when it dies, and when apon removal of the dead fish the guardian goes over and searches the area).
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