How much pain do fish have?

Question

When fish are captured and killed for food, do they feel as much pain as warm-blooded mammals (land animals)?

Answer 1

No person has ever been a fish, so how could we know about the subjective experiences of fishes?  They act like they're suffering, but we can't know for sure what they feel.

Answer 2

Partly yes, and partly no.

Pain, as a basic stimulus, in being something that evokes damage to the functionablility of the system is sensed by the fish, but not necessarily perceived as you and i do.

Answer 3

It's still under debate just how much pain they feel. No one has been able to get a straight answer out of one of them.

Fish have to feel some pain for the same reason human's have to feel pain. They would tear themselves up otherwise with no discentive. It's like a warning that we're doing damage to ourselves.

Answer 4

Here's a site explaining it -I would paste it all but it's a bit.

http://fishscam.com/faqPain.cfm

It basically says no though.

"concluding that animals need specific regions of the cerebral cortex in order to feel pain. And fish do not have them."

=)

Though in my opinion, I would also guess that seeing as many things evolve much differently, there wouldn't be anything stopped them to evolve in such a way to feel pain or things that we humans can't even feel in a different way.

Because, if you can per se, shoot a fish.. maybe it's a very large fish.. it will still act as though injured.

When in a humans case. Even if something is broken, if you're on enough medication or drugs, you can still walk around as though nothing happened.

So pain has to deal some detail with showing injury.

Answer 5

Yes they do feel pain, how much though can only be answered by a fish... check out my source.

Answer 6

Yes they do, this is why I dislike hunting as a sport (where they dont eat the animal, they just kill it for fun.)  As long as you eat what you kill, its justified.(As long as it wasn't a human LOL)

Answer 7

you reach your hand into a tank of fish and chase them around and observe their reactions afterwards.. what are they doing?

huddling in a corner, gasping for breathe, pail as a ghost...

if they can feel emotions as complicated as fear (what else could such a reaction demonstrate).. why shouldn't they feel pain?

furthermore, without knowing pain what is there to fear?

why is it that when you get a bite on a line the fish immediately freaks out and and spazes towards shelter (reeds, underwater log, deep water, etc)?

such reactions can only logically be interpreted as pain, fear, and panic..

how can we assume our emotions are isolated and unique to us, when we are no different from other animals appart from our own arrogance?

even in your question you exhibit extreme bias towards creatures similar to yourself..

"do they feel as much pain as warm-blooded mammals (land animals)?" not all mammals live on land.. do dolphins feel things more like a fish than they do a dog simply because they are aquatic?

how does one know how other mammals sense and react to pain?

how does one know even how other humans sense and react to pain?

Answer 8

This link is 5 years old, so there may be more information available now.  Basically the idea is, they definitely do respond to injury, but who's to say whether they have the same amount of pain as mammals?

http://www.newsday.com/other/special/nat...

Answer 9

idk but did you know that hey have the shortest memory ever and every time they swim in a fish tank around in circles its like seeing it for the first time even if they have swam around it like a million of times!

Answer 10

Yes. Pain is how an animals body tells it's brain that something is wrong. Many people like to think that some creatures don't feel pain so they don't feel guilty about things they do. I'm not a wacko, I go fishing, but I accept that I am causing the fish to feel pain. I like to eat fish.

Answer 11

even if they do have pain, their memories are only a 3 second span. so if their feeling pain now, they will forget about it in 3 seconds.

Answer 12

It has been proven that fish DO feel pain. So all you "I fish and they don't feel it" people...you're wrong. Fish do feel pain, the extent of which is not known. It is unlikely that they feel as much pain as mammals due to less developed sensory system, but it is not impossible.

Answer 13

i fish alot, they don't feel it at all, or they just forget about the pain in about......2 seconds