Sensitizing humans to fish sentience

Abstract

Although fish can feel pain and suffer, they are not often protected legally. Jonathan Balcombe's What a Fish Knows provides a timely and important contribution to the literature on animal cognition and sentience. By explaining their personalities and capabilities, Balcombe brings much needed public attention to fish and advances the principle that they need and deserve protection. Kelly Levenda, student-programs attorney at the Animal Legal Defense Fund, works to advance the emerging field of animal law and support the next generation of animal lawyers by managing Animal Legal Defense Fund's law student program. She is also a social media and website contributor at Fish Feel, which promotes the recognition of fish as sentient beings deserving of respect and protection. http://aldf.org/about-us/meet-our-staff/animal-law-program/#kelly-levenda Fish are capable of experiencing pain, fear, and suffering. We subject fish to inhumane slaughter, poor living conditions, and cruelty, as we do with land animals, yet we do not have even minimal measures to protect fishes' welfare. Without discussion and action, fish will continue to suffer greatly. We need to start bringing fish into our circle of compassion, not least because of the sheer numbers that are killed every year. The estimated total number of fish killed annually for consumption worldwide (based only on wild-caught and farm-raised finfish, not shellfish, such as lobsters, crabs, and shrimp) is one to three trillion (Mood & Brooke, 2010). The fisheries