Fish and pain

[Tigger]

Sorry Ian, but with them not being a subject that is close to my hart, i wasn't keeping count like you.

 

 

 

No need to be sorry Brian, I think the board is pretty liberal and you can't help it if your where born with limp wrists

 

Anyway...how come your not out fishin, that "roach corner" of yours should be good with this extra flow ? I had a stab there myself on Saturday but only managed to give pain to a trout and a dace then it emptied a years worth of rain on my head so I evactuated myself off home .

Edited August 27, 2012 by Tigger

[Steve Walker]

Any discussion of "pain" very quickly runs into issues of semantics. If you rephrase it to ask how I would act if fish could "feel pain" in a way with which I can empathise, then no, I wouldn't fish. I don't think they do, I don't think a maggot or a sea anemone or an amoeba does. I think a dog or a cow or a pig does. I'm not sure about a bird or a reptile, I think I might assume that they do. I don't know, though. I don't even know for sure that any other being experiences consciousness as I do, I assume that is the case with other humans but I don't know and never can.

[lutra]

Anyway...how come your not out fishin, that "roach corner" of yours should be good with this extra flow ? I had a stab there myself on Saturday but only managed to give pain to a trout and a dace then it emptied a years worth of rain on my head so I evactuated myself off home .

I would be out but its wanging another years worth of rain down and blowing a howler with it.

[Tigger]

I would be out but its wanging another years worth of rain down and blowing a howler with it.

 

 

yeah..your right....shite in'it

[Andy Macfarlane]

Some people confuse the issue by claiming (with very little proof) that only creatures with a neocortex as part of their brain can feel pain. Anyway, under this strict definition, only humans and primates can feel pain, and all other creatures (cows, dogs, fish, etc) cannot.

 

 

That's just silly. I once shot my dog in the bot with a gat and I can assure you, he felt pain alright.

 

In seriousness though (as much as I only can), I think most dog-owners would agree that dogs feel pain. Everyone has trod on their dog's paw on occasion and the resulting yelp, with the occasional resulting bite, is proof of sorts that the dog isn't immune to feeling pain.

 

My ex-dog once had an infection of the testes, which we think started with a kick to the nether regions after one of his days out (he'd do that in the Spring...a lot). Anyway, his nuts literally glowed in the dark and the look on his face was that of 'pain'. We can argue all day about whether he felt pain in the same way we do but the very fact he felt solace in the bathroom (cold tiles...you think about it and that's pretty smart), led me to believe he felt relief from something that obviously caused discomfort.

 

As for fish. I don't know and I'm not sure it's clever to even discuss the matter on a FISHING forum. If we say anything other than, "No, of course they don't", we're just opening ourselves up to be quoted on a bloodsports pamplet. It wouldn't be that hard to put FISH and PAIN into Google and come up with this very thread. I believe this happened to Charlie Bettell, if memory serves me correctly.

[Emma two]

Andy, I hope that you don't think that I was proposing the case that only humans and primates can feel pain, that quote was to challenge the notion that only species with a neocortex part of the brain can feel pain. I believe that many species can.

[chesters1]

everything feels pain to a greater or lesser effect its a great way of lessening the chance of death

[Andy Macfarlane]

Andy, I hope that you don't think that I was proposing the case that only humans and primates can feel pain, that quote was to challenge the notion that only species with a neocortex part of the brain can feel pain. I believe that many species can.

 

Not at all Emma....that's why I quoted the quote and not what you, yourself, actually typed.

[FishyFraser]

I think we take it as axiomatic that pain comes in lots of different guises: physical, emotional, instinctive. Of course fish are distressed otherwise they would just happily be reeled in and not try to shake the hook or dash for weed and snags to escape..I'm not sure having a small brain equates to a lack of these responses. However, like most on here I won't pretend that no harm, potential or otherwise, does not come to the fish we catch. By the way, the pain is on your toe, the neurological messages go from the toe to the brain.

 

Sportsman,

 

Silly poll (something for maybe - say - - - - Barry and Andrew to engage in). First if you will edit post #1 and tell me what pain is?

 

If I stub my toe - - - is the pain in my toe or in my brain? (remember, fish have very small brains pretty much limited to instinctive behavour - dont trap yourself)

 

Phone

[Phone]

Fishy F,

 

Ha ha, I'd thought this one had run it's course. I hope it's gone at least from serious to fun.

 

Suppose my toe has been 30 years removed and is somewhere in SE Asia?

 

Phone