Imagine having a miserable life on a fish farm. Instead of being able to dive freely through the sea and travel significant distances, which is what your nature demands, you are forced to be constantly crowded in the same place with little room to move, circling endlessly in a large round cage.
Due to such an unnatural, dirty environment—with toxic water full of feces, pesticides, and parasites, as well as overcrowding—you will likely suffer from diseases and sea lice infections that will slowly eat away at you. Because there is so little space, you will constantly bump into others and the nets that bound the cage, causing you injuries.
From birth until death, you will be condemned to a life contrary to who you are, your tastes, and your desires—an unpleasant and poor life imposed upon you against your will, simply because it generates economic profits for your oppressors.
It is a relationship of exploitation, as it is neither freely consented to nor mutually beneficial.
It is quite possible that you will not survive long enough to be taken to the slaughterhouse, due to sea lice, chemical treatments, diseases, injuries, weather conditions, etc.
But even if you survive, you will live less than half as long as you would in the wild. And to make matters worse, your death will be unpleasant; when you are 2–3 years old, a powerful pump will suck you and many others like you up, passing you through a long, dark tube where you will suffer as you collide with others and the pipe, as if you were a mere object.
At the end of the long tube, you will emerge into the light on a sort of assembly line of a slaughter-ship, where people will be waiting to strike you repeatedly with a club and cut your gills.
What would you think of this and of your exploiters? Would you like it if this were done to you?
Scientists assert that fish have a nervous system; they suffer and feel fear, just as we do, even if they cannot scream. The scientific literature is quite clear: anatomically, physiologically, and biologically, the pain system in fish is practically the same as in birds and mammals.
If you would not want that harm caused to you, why do you cause it to others when you eat fish?
Because more than 50% of the fish consumed comes from fish farms, some of which can hold more than 1 million fish at a time, as they crowd as many as possible into the smallest space to optimize profits.
But your cruelty can be a boomerang that turns against you, as we are what we eat; in this case, you are eating stress and suffering, in addition to the metals and toxic substances present in seawater, such as lead, arsenic, or mercury. To this, we must add the chemicals used to combat sea lice.
Although some First World parliaments have debated the suffering of fish, there are hardly any regulations to protect them.
In the case of wild fish caught by fishing vessels, the fish will have a dignified life but a cruel death, as they will agonize while suffocating when taken out of the water with nets. The change in pressure causes their eyes to explode and their organs to protrude from their mouths while they are still alive.
Many are gutted while conscious; others are frozen alive.
The number of victims is enormous: 2 TRILLION with a T of fish are consumed every year, 20 TRILLION in a decade. On average, more than 18,000 fish per human throughout their lifetime.
Furthermore, according to Greenpeace, large fishing vessels are destroying the oceans, polluting and wrecking natural habitats.
What we do not want for ourselves, let us not do to others.
What can an ethical and empathetic person do to put an end to these cruelties?:
LET US BE COMPASSIONATE AND GOOD PEOPLE!
Thank you for sharing,
Xavier Paya
Living Without Harm initiative
LET’S NOT HARM ANYONE, except in legitimate self-defense against an aggressor.
With the Living Without Harm initiative, we strive to prevent any kind of suffering or harm from being caused to you, your loved ones, and others.
1 Mission: A happier world
3 Goals:
1. Share scientific knowledge about wellbeing.
2. Encourage people not to cause harm.
3. Promote scientific research on quality of life.
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WOULD YOU LIKE TO HELP US LEAVE A BETTER WORLD THAN THE ONE YOU FOUND?
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