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| Sunday, 4 May 2003 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Do fish have feelings ? by Dr. D.P. Atukorale In a recent newspaper article, a female doctor has mentioned that fish don't feel pain. This is not quite true. Like human beings, all animals including mammals, reptiles, birds and fish feel pain. Even though fish don't scream when they are in pain and anguish, their behaviour should be evidence enough of their suffering when they are hooked or netted. They struggle endeavouring to escape and by so doing they demonstrate they have a will to survive. "It has been shown that fish (like other vertebrates including humans) have a highly developed system that may protect them from severe pain which could endanger their lives if they were seriously handicapped by it following some injury to their bodies such as might be inflicted by a large predator. This system releases natural opiate-like substances (encephalins and endorphins) once an animal is injured. The presence of the pain-dampening opiate system implies that there must be some capacity to experience pain; otherwise there would be little point in animals having evolved such a system in the first place". "There may still be some people who will argue that we cannot prove beyond question that any vertebrate other than man feels pain. We however conclude that if any do, then the evidence suggests that all vertebrates (including fish), through the mediation of similar neuro-pharmacological processes, experience similar sensations to a greater or lesser degree in response to noxious stimuli ......" "The apparent universality throughout vertebrates of the neuro-pharmacological basis for the perception of painful (and pleasurable) stimuli does not permit us to agree with those who would recognise a difference in this function between warm-blooded and cold blooded members". "Any hook causes tissue damage when it catches and thus in medical terms, inflicts injury. The conditions of competitive fishing or specimen hunting frequently demand that fish be retained for a prolonged period (in water) in a keep-net, and also examined, weighed and perhaps photographed (in air) before ultimately being liberated. All such procedures increase the likelihood of injury to the fish ...." "The tissues of fish when it is removed from the water are subject in air to pressures greatly reduced and differing in nature from those they are subject to in water. Consequently there are greatly altered changes in the various peripheral systems affecting lymphatic and venous blood pressure and respiration. Bleeding tends to occur from the gills and instead of dispersing, the blood coagulates and reduces the effective respiratory surface ....." "More significantly are the effects of desiccation and particularly of handling on the skin and gills. The outer surface of the fish does not consist of scales, as is commonly believed. Scales are located within the dermis (middle layer of skin). Superficial to them is the epidermis with its mucus layer. The epidermis is a very delicate transparent tissue which provides the water proofing i.e. an essential part of the physiological control of fluid balance between the fish and the environment. It is also the barrier between the fish and wide variety of disease producing micro-organisms found in water. Handling of fish, in a landing net or by hand to remove hooks, will almost certainly involve damage to this delicate layer. Severe trauma is caused by holding a fish tightly in a dry cloth, which will remove the epidermis from considerable areas of the body -- Prolonged playing of the fish, particularly when they are returned to the water subsequently is to be deprecated. When teleost fish are severely stressed and exercised to exhaustion, they make extensive use of their "white muscle system". A completely exhausted fish will be unable to move for several hours after capture. During this time it will be at risk to attack by predators or injury from its inanimate environment". References 1. Fox, Michael D.V.M, PhD "Do Fish Have Feelings" The Animal's Agenda, July/August, 1987, pp24-29. 2. Lord Medway et al, Report of the Panel of Enquiry Into Shooting and Angling". Sponsored by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals 1979. |
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