Is it right for Animal Rights activists to consider eating fish immoral?

Theo

Active Member
Animal Rights hero Peter Singer is asked about this topic in a new Bloggingheads at this link.

As I've said before, I find it difficult to find anything morally wrong with eating fish, as I don't believe fish think or feel. I don't draw the line there. I eat lots of poutry, for example, though I find things become more morally problematic with birds than with fish (especially since I love birds -- I spend a lot of time with my bird feeders!). I also occasionally eat cows, though not much. I treat steak as a rare indulgence. I am a speciesist and a somewhat restrained carnivore, and I find arguments against eating/killing animals much more persuasive when we're talking about animals that I consider "higher" species -- animals that can think and feel to a greater degree (I definitely draw the line around the pig). Fish? I don't really worry about fish. And I think Tyler Cowen, of George Mason University, wins this exchange with Peter Singer on the topic of eating fish.

What do you think?

I also noticed the thread about spiders. I happen to find spiders cool and try and avoid harming them as much as possible. But I'm not so kind to some other insects. For example, what do you do when spring hits and you find a bunch of those really tiny ants spurting out all over, say, your bathroom or kitchen? They're too small and numerous to snatch and place gently outdoors. Seems to me you kinda have to kill kill kill. I used RAID when this happened last week and it ended the problem real quick. I didn't feel bad. Was I really supposed to try and save the lives of all these teensy ants?

More generally, I figured there are some Peter Singer fans here, who might wanna play the entire diavlog which goes beyond the fish topic. Even more generally, Bloggingheads is a cool sit with lots of interesting diavlogs, IMO.
 
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I find it difficult to find anything morally wrong with eating fish, as I don't believe fish think or feel.

The fact that fish have no vocal cords give us a false sense that they can't suffer. But they do. Fish, like any other animal, strive for their survival and well being.

Besides, there are other problems when it comes to certain types of fish like tuna, for example. When people eat tuna, they're not only killing fish but also mammals that are caught in the nets.
 
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of course it is, and you dont have to be an animal rights 'activist' to believe so.
its immoral to eat anything (that was) living, FULL STOP.
 
Fish probably do feel pain. Maybe they don't have a complex emotional world or a grasp of their own being, but they do have a nervous system and a small brain.

Fish was the final thing I took of my menu before becoming a real vegetarian (I was a wannabe for a while :)). At the time I felt fish eating is morally wrong for ecological reasons.
 
Animal Rights hero Peter Singer is asked about this topic in a new Bloggingheads at this link.

As I've said before, I find it difficult to find anything morally wrong with eating fish, as I don't believe fish think or feel. I don't draw the line there. I eat lots of poutry, for example, though I find things become more morally problematic with birds than with fish (especially since I love birds -- I spend a lot of time with my bird feeders!). I also occasionally eat cows, though not much. I treat steak as a rare indulgence. I am a speciesist and a somewhat restrained carnivore, and I find arguments against eating/killing animals much more persuasive when we're talking about animals that I consider "higher" species -- animals that can think and feel to a greater degree (I definitely draw the line around the pig). Fish? I don't really worry about fish. And I think Tyler Cowen, of George Mason University, wins this exchange with Peter Singer on the topic of eating fish.

What do you think?

I also noticed the thread about spiders. I happen to find spiders cool and try and avoid harming them as much as possible. But I'm not so kind to some other insects. For example, what do you do when spring hits and you find a bunch of those really tiny ants spurting out all over, say, your bathroom or kitchen? They're too small and numerous to snatch and place gently outdoors. Seems to me you kinda have to kill kill kill. I used RAID when this happened last week and it ended the problem real quick. I didn't feel bad. Was I really supposed to try and save the lives of all these teensy ants?

More generally, I figured there are some Peter Singer fans here, who might wanna play the entire diavlog which goes beyond the fish topic. Even more generally, Bloggingheads is a cool sit with lots of interesting diavlogs, IMO.

Of course fish feel pain. As other users pointed out, they have a nervous system, and a brain. Animals who do not feel pain die quickly--for example, there is an exceedingly rare condition in humans which causes the patient to be unable to feel pain. Such patients, I have heard, must check their bodies from top to bottom several times a day, to make sure that they haven't hurt themselves. They have to check their eyes to make sure that they haven't scratched their corneas. They have to check their lips every morning, to make sure that they haven't chewed at them during the night. Many, if not most, of them die at a young age.

This would be true for all animals. If there was an animal who couldn't feel pain, this animal would die, in the wild, at a very young age, before the animal could reproduce.
 
Strange thread.

Vegetarians don't eat fish.

Fish were put on the planet to be eaten by bigger fish.Us humans do not need fish.

Where I live they want to place a mile or so offshore quite a few wind turbines but all the local fisherman are up in arms. This makes me seethe with rage so much so that my head nearly explodes. What arrogance of man to believe that because fishing is his "trade" that he has absolute right to plunder the sea.Like the fish are there just for his taking.:mad:
 
Strange thread.

Vegetarians don't eat fish.

Fish were put on the planet to be eaten by bigger fish.Us humans do not need fish.

Where I live they want to place a mile or so offshore quite a few wind turbines but all the local fisherman are up in arms. This makes me seethe with rage so much so that my head nearly explodes. What arrogance of man to believe that because fishing is his "trade" that he has absolute right to plunder the sea.Like the fish are there just for his taking.:mad:

absofrigginlutely agree Hellie, i HATE fishermen, and how they moan, like farmers, welll frankly they dont HAVE to be a F***ing farmer or fisherman do they for F***s sake!!

*retreats to calm her blood pressure*
 
of course it is, and you dont have to be an animal rights 'activist' to believe so.
its immoral to eat anything (that was) living, FULL STOP.

So does your diet consist of rocks, minerals and water then? Even then you're consuming micro-organisms. Good luck living with the guilt.
 
Only the most numb and robotic person would find the idea of eating an animal appetizing if they really thought about it.
 
I don't care that they care that people don't care about fish.

Is this right?
 
Any Animal Rights person who eats ANY animal is a f***ing hypocrite!... no ifs of buts about it!

I don't even consider myself an "animal rights" person and I wouldn't eat fish or poultry unless I was starving for days in the middle of some remote place.
 
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Transformers-Decepticon-Logo-757744.jpg

In all seriousness, of course fish feel "pain" as you may describe it. But so does a mosquito when you smash as does termite that you exterminate from your home and anything else that is deemed "alive." I faked the raccoon story the other day though. I wanted to raise a similar issue of the so called difference between a raccoon and a spider. I became very busy and never had the chance to recant that statement as I promised someone in PM.

However, some even suggest that plants feel pain. After all, plants will preserve their ability to "live" to the best of their ability. (Remember the old vine experiment?)
 
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