Over the years several things occured that gave me some insight that serve to guide me in cases involving my relationship with animals. First, do not personalize an animal by imagining that it thinks or feels as we do. Some might come close but the range is very wide according to their mental capabilities and their nervous system. > Two of the cases that I recall from the several examples I was given occured while treating a horse. The vet was giving a horse a shot with a very large needle. (long and big around) seeing my concern, the vet informed me that a horses nerves and nerve patterns are different (not nearly so refined) and it would be lkely that the horse would not feel it. He gave the shot, the horse didn't even twitch and I gained a bit of insight. > Another example concerned frogs or perhaps it was toads. Upon reading about how a toad/frogs thermal system works in that they can't sense slow changes in temperature, a couple of young neighbor boys placed several in a kettle of water and then slowly raising the temperature, they cooked them with out the frogs trying to get out. (I learned this after the fact when I intervened, thinking they were trying to cook froglegs or something of that order.) > Anyway, if what they said was true, (they came up with the idea following a science class in school) it would appear that the frogs have a very different sensing/nervous system than do humans. > In addition to this line of thinking, you might also give some thought to the waste that occurs in any food supply system. In every case that I've examined, it's much better ecologically, humanely, environmentally, etc to do it yourself! If you buy food, from fish at the market - to corn from the store, etc, animals have been slaughtered, waste occurs and the environment has been impacted. (corn takes fertilizer manufactured from animal byproducts, or worse yet from chemicals ) > Minimize your impact to the environment, waste not want not (concerning food), take care of the animals as you can and have fun fishing, hunting, and with other outoor sports since in large part the outdoors man or woman is much more inclined to fit in with the animals and the environment than are those who carry placards and make an annoyance of themselves by trying to tell others what to do based on their feelings and not science.
Good Fishing Chuck S
