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Fish do feel pain, say British scientists
2nd May 2003
Planet Ark - LONDON
Story by Michael Holden
Anglers take note - British scientists say that after years of debate, they now have proof that fish feel pain.
Animal activists are on the warpath after a study released this week showed how rainbow trout react to discomfort.
They condemned fishing as cruel and demanded an end to the sport - but anglers themselves dismissed the study.
The research found that fish have receptors in their heads and that subjecting them to noxious substances causes "adverse behavioural and physiological changes."
"This fulfils the criteria for animal pain," said Dr Lynne Sneddon who headed the research, published this week by the Royal Society, Britain's national academy of science.
Bee venom or acetic acid was injected into the lips of some of the trout, while control groups of fish were injected with saline solution or merely handled.
The trout injected with venom or acid began to show "rocking" motion - similar to that seen in stressed higher vertebrates - and those injected with acetic acid began rubbing their lips in the gravel of their tank.
"These do not appear to be reflex responses," Sneddon said.
The affected fish also took three times longer to resume feeding activity compared to those in the control groups.
The team from the Roslin Institute and the University of Edinburgh found the fish had polymodal nociceptors - receptors that respond to tissue-damaging stimuli - on their heads.
It is the first time these receptors have been found in fish. They have similar properties to those found in amphibians, birds and mammals including humans.
Animal activists said the findings showed that fishing was cruel.
"We would encourage anglers to lay down their rods. It's ridiculous that in 2003 we are still talking about whether fish feel pain - of course they do," Dawn Carr of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) told Sky News.
But anglers vowed to keep on enjoying their sport.
"Until we have proper, bona fide evidence, we will never know. It's supposition," said Charles Jardine, director of pro-angling group Gone Fishing.
"I don't think the millions of anglers throughout the whole of the world would see themselves as cruel individuals."
To view abstracts from scientific papers relating to this issue click on the links below:
1) The Neurobehavioral Nature of Fishes and the Question of Awareness and Pain
Author James D. Rose
2) Do fishes have nociceptors? Evidence for the evolution of a vertebrate sensory system
Author(s): Sneddon, Braithwaite and Gentle
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