Science Daily - Do fish feel pain? Not as humans do, study suggests
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/201...123719.htm
"[Nociceptors are receptors that] send electrical signals through nerve-lines and the spinal cord to the cerebral cortex (neocortex)." The article says that behavioral responses to nociception are insufficient to suggest a conscious awareness of pain.
"All primitive cartilaginous fish" and most "boney fish" lack c-nociceptors, which are "involved in the sensation of intense experiences of pain."
"Moreover, fish often show only minor or no reactions at all to interventions which would be extremely painful to us and to other mammals."
In investigating the behavioral responses of fish, they found that "pain killers such as morphine that are effective for humans were either ineffective in fish or were only effective in astronomically high doses that, for small mammals, would have meant immediate death from shock."
[comment] Are they saying the drugs didn't stop the behaviors unless the dose was large enough to paralyze the fish? hmm [end comment]
One study isn't enough, and I still think we shouldn't blatantly disregard the possibility that fish do feel pain. Don't skin them alive, disconnect the head on the
first cleave, etc.
The article notes that the findings do not relinquish the responsibility to "minimise any form of stress and damage to the fish when interacting with it." Does this mean fish can be stressed?
