editor: fish don't feel?

[Guest guest]

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" Sterling D. Allan " <sterlingda

" SL Tribune Op-Ed " <letters

Wednesday, November 17, 2004 9:34 PM

editor: fish don't feel?

 

 

Re: http://www.sltrib.com/2004/Nov/nationworld/ci_2457217

 

What do you mean fish don't feel? All living creatures, little or large,

have senses of varying level of intricacy. Without such they would not

survive. They need to be able to sense and respond. That is not just a

religious theory, it is a scientific reality.

 

You can imagine my chagrin, therefore, when I read in your " fish are smart,

sensitive " article a quotation from James Rose, a neuroscientists at the

University of Wyoming, saying that when a fish is hooked when fishing, that

" to suggest they know what's happening to them and worry about it, that's

just not the case. " (SLTrib; p. A6, Nov. 17)

 

Of course they don't know that there is a human being on the other end of

that pain they are feeling, but to suggest that they are not even slightly

disturbed by the event is ludicrous.

 

Every food we eat is a choice. Did I cause undo suffering by this food I am

eating? If the answer is no, because your survival depends on that food,

and the most humane way possible for harvesting was used, then you are

probably justified in the choice. But if your answer is one of preference,

not survival, then you have some spiritual maturing to do.

 

To think that a scientist is saying that our food chain has no cognizance of

the pain we inflict in harvesting that food is absolutely asinine. A two

year old knows better, because it doesn't have social conditioning to

callous its conscience.

 

Sterling D. Allan