Posted on 02/07/2005 12:28:46 PM PST by franksolich
OSLO, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Worms squirming on a fishhook feel no pain -- nor do lobsters and crabs cooked in boiling water, a scientific study funded by the Norwegian government has found.
"The common earthworm has a very simple nervous system -- it can be cut in two and continue with its business," Professor Wenche Farstad, who chaired the panel that drew up the report, said on Monday.
Norway might have considered banning the use of live worms as fish bait if the study had found they felt pain, but Farstad said "It seems to be only reflex curling when put on the hook ... They might sense something, but it is not painful and does not compromise their well-being."
The government called for the study on pain, discomfort and stress in invertebrates to help in the planned revision of Norway's animal protection law.
Invertebrates cover a range of creatures from insects and spiders to mollusks and crustaceans. Farstad said most invertebrates, including lobsters and crabs boiled alive, do not feel pain because, unlike mammals, they do not have a big brain to read the signals.
Some more advanced kinds of insects, such as honeybees which display social behaviour and a capacity to learn and cooperate, deserve special care, she said.
"We have particular responsibility for animals that we have in our custody. That is not a scientific opinion, but the ethical side of the issue," Farstad said.
I mean isn't that why you always see earthworms above ground after a heavy rain?
So let's drown them...as long as they aren't hurting bleeding on the hook...or wearing panties on their heads (which end is the head?)
-Pink Floyd
. . . and may I add that Renfield was ably played by singer-songerwriter Tom Waits.
The worm is allergic to METAL........
Reminds me of a scifi novel "I have no mouth and I must scream"
Why do you think it's called DemocratUNDERGROUND?.......
"...have you ever been to the democraticunderground?"
I visit from time to time. Not registered, don't post.
I recall one of the successful factors for war is "know your enemy."
People at DU are only part of the overall dem voter base. So to assume all dems are as extreme as DU is incorrect.
"There's no doubt in my mind that they feel pain."
And yet you keep doing it. You unfeeling monster! </humor>
They vote Democrat in St. Louis, Seattle, Cleveland, Chicago, ...
I think when the DUmmie "Skinner" started that site in late 2000, sir, he wished to associate it, vaguely, with the old Soviet samizdat, the dissidents--as if there were no political liberty in America, and hence the Democrats had to go "underground."
Unfortunately for "Skinner" and the DUmmies, however, the site rather than exemplifying the nobility of honest dissent, took on all the accoutrements of a sewer, a cesspool, some sort of gross rancidity that needs buried.
DUmmies do not have a clue; they cannot understand that only in America--only right here in this country--would they even be allowed to exist.....and those very things they disparage (capitalism, the free market, the armed forces) are the only things that keep them alive.
Stupid DUmmies.
Earthworms take garbage and turn it into fertilizer, DUmmies do exactly the opposite.....
>They might sense something, but it is not painful and does >not compromise their well-being."
Being eaten by a fish on the other hand...
So if and when they found that lettuce screams, would they outlaw vegetables. Morons with too much time on their hands. Boy, for people who are into the 'natural order' of things they sure don't support the food chain.
Tell that to the crabs thrown in boiling water! They seemed pretty agitated until they succumbed. Good eating though.
What bothers me is the muffled screams coming from my broccoli as I smother it in cheese sauce.
Thanks for the ping Franksolich! I've been meaning to ask you to add me to the ping list but you're ahead of my mind. LOL
"Tell that to the crabs thrown in boiling water! They seemed pretty agitated until they succumbed. Good eating though."
===
Well, at least you knew enough to throw them in BOILING water!!
My first time catching and cooking them while living near Seattle, I was young and dumb.
Dang, they sure tried to crawl out that kettle once the water started getting warm. Had to keep pressure on the lid to keep them inside.
How embarrassingly funny that is to me now. LOL. Sure glad to know, after all these years of "guilt," they didn't feel any pain.
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