Do Fish Really Feel No Pain...

Scientists have reportedly discovered that fish do not feel pain as they do not have a brain system or enough sensory receptors in the nerve cells to experience suffering. Fish do not even suffer when they are hooked and fighting for their lives, according to research by an international team.

While fish may struggle to get free, scientists say this does not mean they are in pain. Instead, they show little effect from injuries and toxins that would leave humans in agony. In their experiments, experts inserted needles into the jaws of rainbow trout. In spite of large injections of acid or bee venom, that would cause severe pain to a human, the trout showed little effect. Fish also resumed normal activity within minutes of surgical procedures, as well as after being caught and released back into the water.

Even if this report is correct, nobody gets a right to inflict cruelty on fish or kill them. We all know how important fish are for a balanced eco system. We all must remember that the animals of the world are here for a reason and the Earth belongs to them as much as it belongs to humans. As Henry Beston puts it, "We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals... In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth."