Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1900-11-24
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.
| A little boy was fishing for tho first
time With the customary luck of a
| beginner he had bass and perch galore
to answer the invitation of his bait.
| Presently the impulses Of the hui
name side OF his nature made a little
hesitating protest against the more
savage instincts of the sportsmanlike
side. The wriggllng 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 80 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
80 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 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
fn
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 a footnote to the thirteenth canto
of "Don Juan" Byron denounces Izaak
Walton as Sentimental savage and
characterizes fishing as "the cruelcst,
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 It's moral legs, as 1t were, an
end to be accomplished merely by tell
ing the truth about It. 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 It's nature con-
dennis II and for time breathing the
air that intoxicates 1t in delightfully."-
af ho In
stinct Of sexual association except In
the case Of a few rare species. 1t
knows nothing Of cOmpanionship, for
the scientists tell us that even when
fish swim in schools" It 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
lets" at the base Of his tongue, and ev-
cry fisherman knows that the fish
swallows his prey whole with no pcs
sibllity 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 IA readily
as the dantIest bait morscl 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 ceascless 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 threats In the
act Of swallowing. On that account
alone the severely splned sunfish 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
over inferior creatures which
God authorized him to exercise
George Cary Eggleston In New York
World.