Fish do not fell pain

Fish do not feel pain and its implications for understanding phenomenal consciousness

Brian Key 

School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, 4072, Australia

Abstract

Phenomenal consciousness or the subjective experience of feeling sensory stimuli is fundamental to human existence. Because of the ubiquity of their subjective experiences, humans seem to readily accept the anthropomorphic extension of these mental states to other animals. Humans will typically extrapolate feelings of pain to animals if they respond physiologically and behaviourally to noxious stimuli. The alternative view that fish instead respond to noxious stimuli reflexly and with a limited behavioural repertoire is defended within the context of our current understanding of the neuroanatomy and neurophysiology of mental states. Consequently, a set of fundamental properties of neural tissue necessary for feeling pain or experiencing affective states in vertebrates is proposed. While mammals and birds possess the prerequisite neural architecture for phenomenal consciousness, it is concluded that fish lack these essential characteristics and hence do not feel pain.

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10539-014-9469-4/fulltext.html#ContactOfAuthor1

Fish don’t feel pain? Diving in to the deep end of fish welfare

Do fish really feel pain? You might assume yes, but you’d be wrong. Kind of. You see – it’s complicated. Dr Ben Diggles has worked with government, aquaculture industry, recreational fisheries, and commercial fisheries throughout New Zealand, Australia, Asia and the Pacific Islands. His core work includes import risk analysis, fish and shellfish health, fish welfare, development of feeding attractants for aquaculture, and development of medicated feeds for aquacultured finfish. In his spare time Ben studies the effects of declining water quality on our estuaries, and is active in his local community developing solutions to these problems, like Oyster Reef Restoration. In this episode, we catch up on the latest scientific findings relating to fish pain and learn more about the Ikijime  method for killing fish captured for eating.

http://www.humananimalscience.com.au/fish-pain-welfare/