Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1900-12-17
ETHICS OF FISHING.
A SCIENTIFIC VIEW OF THE ALLEGED
CRUELTY OF THE SPORT.

The Creatures Are Most Happy When
They Are Hooked-They Have Little
Capacity For Suffering and Even
Little Pleasure In Eating.
little boy was fishing for the first
time. With the customary luck Of
beginner he had bass and perch galore
to answer the Invitation of his bait.
Presently the impulses of the hu-
name side Of his nature made a little
hesitating protest against the more
savage instincts of the sportsmanlike
side. The wriggling of the fish when
he caught them troubled him, and he
sought to apologize to. his conscience
for the suffering he was apparently in
ficting. He said, 81 think the reason
they jump so is that they are so glad to
get out of that wet water"
Curiously enough, II we may accept
the testimony of the scientists, the lit
tie boy was quite right. A fish is never
so happy as when he is drawn out Of
the water. The air is to him quite all
that laughing gas Is to human being.
1t gives him a hundred times more
oxygen per second than his gills ever
got for him from the inhalation of wa
ter. 1t makes him delightfully."- drunk
en-. 1t exhilarates him. 1t fills him
with a completeness Of physical joy
the only joy he is capable of feeling
wholly unknown to him in his native
element. He dies presently. 1t is true,
but he dies in an ecstasy of enjoyment
instead of dying In his appointed fash
ion by suffocation in the nav of some
bigger fish.
In footnote to the thirteenth canto
of Don Juan" Byron denounces Izaak
Walton as sentimental savage" and
characterzes fishing as 'the cruelest,
the coolest of pretended sports" That
| only shows how little Byron knew
about the matter. His sports involved
the sacrifice of women rather than
worms.
| 1t Is time to set this matter of fish
Ing upon its moral legs, as 1t were, an
end to be accomplished merely by tell
ing the truth about 1t. A fish is the
very lowest form of the vertebrates. 1t
Is incapable of any JOY except that Of
| getting hooked and thus drawn out of
the water to which its nature con-
| demns it and for time breathing the
air that intoxicates 1t In delightfully."-
| deadly fashion. 1t has not even the in
stinct of sexual association except in
the case of a few rare species. 1t
knows nothing of companionshlp, for
the scientists tell us that even when
fish swim in schools" 1t Is only be-
cause they are engaged In common
predatory pursuit of prey, each endeav-
oring to snatch from the others the
morsels they seek to swallow.
| So low in the scale is the fish that
even in eating he has no pleasure ex-
cept that of distending his stomach.
For the scientists find no taste COB
let's" at the base of his tongue, and ev-
cry fisherman knows that the fish
| swallows his prey whole, with no pos
sibillty of detecting Its flavor. And
further. every fisherman who has troll
| ed knows that the fish is so far an in
discriminate gormand in his search for
| food that he will swallow a coffee
| spoon with bur attached as readily
as the dalntiest bait morsel that could
be displayed in front of his greedy eyes
and his rapacious mouth.
Still. again, every fish that Is caught
upon a hook gets only what he de-
serves. He is caught every time in an
attempt to swallow some other crea-
ture whole and digest it in slow tor
ture. Indeed the entire life Of every
| fish is passed In ceaseless endeavor
to catch and swallow other fish. So far
as science can discover, fish Of most
species make no distinction even In IA
! vor of their own young, their only
ground of selection being a considera-
ton for their individual throats in the
act of swallowing. On that account
alone the severely spined sunhsh es-
capes the predatory perch, and the
bullhead the moment his horns" are
hard ceases to be In danger even from
the most voracious Of pickerel.
The fisherman is not monster of
wanton cruelty. He is merely a de-
scendant of Adam exercising that do
minion" over inferior creatures which
God authorized him to exercise
George Cary Eggeston In New York
World.
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