Do Fish Feel Pain? [Hardcover]

Victoria Braithwaite (Author)

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Product Details

Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Oxford University Press (April 25 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0199551200
ISBN-13: 978-0199551200
Product Dimensions: 22.4 x 14.2 x 2.3 cm
Shipping Weight: 381 g
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #239,467 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #58 in Books > Science > Biological Sciences > Zoology > Ichthyology

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Product Description

Review

"Braithwaite is at her best when conveying the sophistication of fish behavior. She does an admirable job of convincing readers that fish are smart." -- The Quarterly Review of Biology

"A timely, important and interesting book."--New Scientist

"Do Fish Feel Pain? is a fascinating excursion through the recent studies of the surprisingly complex behaviour of fish."--Nature

"Do fish feel pain? by the renowned scientist, Victoria Braithwaite, is a very important read for those interested in the general topic of pain in animals, especially because it has been long assumed that fish are not sentient beings and are not all that intelligent."-- Marc Bekoff, Psychology Today

Product Description

While there has been increasing interest in recent years in the welfare of farm animals, fish are frequently thought to be different. In many people's perception, fish, with their lack of facial expressions or recognisable communication, are not seen to count when it comes to welfare. Angling is a major sport, and fishing a big industry. Millions of fish are caught on barbed hooks, or left to die by suffocation on the decks of fishing boats. Here, biologist Victoria Braithwaite explores the question of fish pain and fish suffering, explaining what we now understand about fish behaviour, and examining the related ethical questions about how we should treat these animals. She asks why the question of pain in fish has not been raised earlier, indicating our prejudices and assumptions; and argues that the latest and growing scientific evidence would suggest that we should widen to fish the protection currently given to birds and mammals.

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Inside This Book (Learn More)

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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index

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Amazon.com: 4.0 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Measured, balanced, fascinating...., May 5 2010

By Chestnut worm - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: Do Fish Feel Pain? (Hardcover)

Refreshingly intelligent book, which trusts the reader and maintains a thoughtful and balanced tone throughout. The author explores the issues around fish pain, suffering and welfare, identifying the questions we might ask, the ways we might try to answer them, and what the answers really mean. At each stage the book gives clear but detailed descriptions of the scientific research supporting each conclusion, making the story accessible to non-specialists and crucially moving the text from a 'trust me, I know' harangue to a 'here's what we know' dialogue.
Considering the general philosophical issues around animal welfare as well as the scientific questions of what fish can experience, the book scrupulously fails to find a bogeyman or call for any knee-jerk instant solutions. Nonetheless, it raises some hard issues, and in a world where we're ready to pay more for free-range poultry, it may be timely to be hearing some unpalatable facts about many of the standard commercial fishing practices used to produce the fish on our plates.
Alongside the exploration of the book's main themes comes plenty of fascinating biology, including the extraordinary and rather delightful story of the grouper and the eel, which I've had to repeat to everyone since reading it. The author is a fish biologist, and the book tells a perhaps unintended third story, that of the scientific process, the honest search for the right question, and then the ingenuity and elegance applied to finding an answer. When the predominant exposure to science is about dramatic breakthroughs or headline-grabbing controversy, this readable, thoughtful and informative book is a tribute to the people quietly getting on with it, trying to find out how things really work. I'm grateful one of them has found the time to share the process, as well as raising some very important issues about our understanding of and interactions with these fascinating and diverse animals.
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Balanced, Thoughtful, and Dispassionate, May 4 2010

By Chris - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: Do Fish Feel Pain? (Hardcover)

I approached this book with from a rather skeptical perspective, but found myself won over by the strength of the author's argument. It would be easy to slip into simple advocacy - either for anglers or for animal rights - but Braithwaite artfully avoids this trap. Instead, she allows the data to speak for themselves, and takes the reader through the series of well-designed experimental steps that are necessary to defend her contention that fish do indeed feel pain. Whether or not you agree with her conclusions is another matter, but as a biologist I found the data compelling

This is science at its best - clear, methodical, and rational. I'd recommend it highly to students, not just as a study in fish biology, but also as an example of how to present an emotive argument without letting emotion cloud the issue.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Written by Professor Braithwaite, an expert in this field, May 9 2010

By E. Hughes - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: Do Fish Feel Pain? (Hardcover)

My brother is a keen angler. We've argued in the past about whether fish feel pain. I would like to give them the benefit of the doubt. However, I don't need to doubt any longer - the proof is in this book that fish can suffer. Boy, am I going to feel smug when I lend him my copy!

Professor Braithwaite is an expert in this field. She, and fellow researchers, began by asking whether fish have the necessary receptors and nerve fibres to detect painful events. Next they wanted to determine whether a potentially painful stimulus triggered activity in the nervous system. If they were able to find positive answers to those two questions, the final test was to find out how the experience of a potentially painful event affected the behaviour of fish and the decisions that they made. The upshot is that Braithwaite did find the pain receptors and fish responded to the pain felt. This is backed up a lot of recent research, some of with is quoted in the book.

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