Euthanizing Fish

[CMG]

Originally Posted by lcstorc

We have no way of knowing what they do or not feel. You would have to be a fish to know that. Science can guess but they don't know.
You certainly can let it die naturally, but there is also the argument that if they are suffering shouldn't we end their misery similar to what we would do for a dog or cat.
Everyone must decide what is right for them and their situation.

I agree to a certain degree...hehe that rhymes. I think what I am trying to say is that humans have super developed nervous systems so we feel everything very easily. Since a lot of creatures don't have such developed nervous systems they are able to survive "better". Think of how wolves and coyotes chew off their legs when they get stuck in a trap. If we attempted to do that we would pass out. Besides, arent we trying to provide an environment as close to the wild as possible?

[ramora]

I read somewhere where you make a cut along the lateral line or something like that not really hip on the euthanizing thing as I just flush them as I don't have the heart to watch also no sad reminders.

[BEELZEBOB]

Originally Posted by Witfull

i hate to say this,,,,but its been done thousands of times,,,,plastic bag and a sharp whack on the counter, 2 if needed. quick instantanious death.

this is what i do fishing, and what i did to my damsel prior to feeding it to my corals.

id rather get hit in the back of the head and die instantly than freeze.

boiling water... ehhh seems like a moment of pain to me.

witts got the best solution IMHO. NO SUFFERING

[Witfull]

im from Jersey,,,Whacking is second nature~

[blue_eyes53813]

Just passing by....

[Dentoid]

I agree with CMG that lower animals do not process pain the same way mammals do (that means wolves). Sure they have a nociceptive response to painful stimuli, (ie being poked, burned, dosed with a chemical etc). It's like when you burn your finger with a match, your response is to pull away. Fish and other lower animals do the same thing to a painful stimulus, they get away from it. Lower animals don't have the capacity to reason about lingering pain like humans and to a lesser extent those mammals with a smaller frontal cortex. In other words they don't obsess or dramatize pain, They go on surviving. People that say they have a high tolerance to pain have a different perception of pain than one who has a low tolerence of pain. This is because of the human brain's highly developed frontal lobe. Fish do not have a frontal lobe in their brain.

For me, euthanizing a fish is not about pain but more about taking the sick animals life in a dignified, compassionate and human manner. Some of you may clobber to death your suffering grandfather in the back yard, if it was legal, but it wouldn not be dignified or compassionate. It's easy to justify barbaric practices hiding under the umbrella of "put it out of its misery" and "Whacking" or "The old fashioned way" but there are more humane ways of euthanizing a sick fish.

I find it interesting how much emphasis we put on keeping our fish alive and how little of taking their lives!

[BEELZEBOB]

huh.

good point.

but at my house, my only options are boil, freeze or whack.

to me the quicker, the more humane the method.

i have SERIOUS deep seeded issues watching any living thing suffer.

and im sorry but frezzing an animal while its alive just doesnt seem humane to me.

and there was that study about shrimp and boiling water... you know with 2 bowls of live shrimp like 100 feet from eachother, when they dropped one bowl in, the shrimp in the other bowl went nutz.

im sorry, but ima whacker.

grandpa has way more options. buty think, if you only had the 3 options for grandpa that you have for fish.

i aint gonna boil him. aint gonna stick him in a freezer for hours. id go mice of men style. strait up

[Witfull]

yo Tony,,,he sleeps wit' da fishes~

[BEELZEBOB]

you like that show much as i do mr. occifer?

[panmanmatt]

My preferred methods are clove oil or MS-222.

Seahorse Source

[BEELZEBOB]

whoa, so that knocks them out?

how cool!!! debate resolved! panman has the best solution!

[Dentoid]

Thanks Matt, it take some people longer to catch on than others.

[panmanmatt]

Originally Posted by BEELZEBOB

whoa, so that knocks them out?

how cool!!! debate resolved! panman has the best solution!

Yup, it is just like anesthesia when you have surgery. I usually start with a small amount and gradually increase it over about a half hour. They just go to sleep and don't wake up.

[panmanmatt]

Originally Posted by Dentoid

Thanks Matt, it take some people longer to catch on than others.

No problem, Scott. Nothing like a never ending nap.

[cracker]

Anything's better than gasping in the corner unable to get away waiting for the cleanup crew to move in. However that's how nature does it.