This is something painful to know
How many times have you tried to break a long-standing ‘negative’ habit but failed? How difficult is it to get rid of just one negative quality within ourselves, after years of habituation? It is definitely difficult to change our habits, though not impossible… so it is for this reason that we must instill good and beneficial habits in our children from a young age… and one of these good habits is to be kind to all animals.
I came across this very short but meaningful write up from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ (PETA) website which I want everyone to read. Did you know that just one simple act of not teaching our children to fish can make a whole lot of difference to our children’s lives, both health and spiritually? Not to mention that it saves hundreds of thousands of fishes from falling victim to cruelty. Do read the article… being a parent is not just about giving our children a nice place to live, nice food, nice gadgets and putting them in the best schools, but it is (more importantly) about how we shape them to be wonderful people that can benefit the community.
I thank PETA for this article which I hope more will read and go to their website to know more of their good works.
Tsem Rinpoche
Please never hurt animals. Let them be happy and free.
Reasons Not to Teach Your Child to Fish
Ready for some parent-child bonding time? Whatever you do, don’t break out the rod and reel. Below, we discuss why teaching your son or daughter to fish can be as bad for him or her as it is for the fish.
Fish Isn’t a Health Food, Especially for Kids
© iStock.com/val_th
Fish are commonly contaminated with toxins such as mercury. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) says that mercury acts as a neurotoxin, interfering with the brain and nervous system. Exposure is extremely hazardous to pregnant women as well as small children because during the first several years of life, a child’s brain is still developing and rapidly absorbing nutrients. The NRDC says that even low doses of mercury may affect a child’s development, delaying walking and talking, shortening attention span, and causing learning disabilities. There are also health risks associated with consuming farmed fish: The Environmental Working Group estimates that 800,000 people in the U.S. face an excess lifetime cancer risk from eating farmed salmon. Instead of fish, try these faux-fish recipes, which are free from cruelty but filled with flavor.
Catch-and-Release Still Causes Suffering
sw_wa_fishing 063 | JSeattle | CC BY 2.0
Hooked fish endure not only physical pain but also terror and exhaustion from fighting to escape. When they’re pulled from the water, they’re no longer able to breathe. Fish’s gills often collapse, and their swim bladders can even rupture because of the sudden change in pressure. Weakened and stressed, they’re more vulnerable to predators after they’ve been thrown back. Read more about the harm of catch-and-release fishing, which even extends beyond our finned friends.
Fish Can Feel Pain
Dr. Michael Fox, D.V.M., Ph.D., put it this way:
Even though fish don’t scream [audibly to humans] when they are in pain and anguish, their behavior should be evidence enough of their suffering when they are hooked or netted. They struggle, endeavoring to escape and, by so doing, demonstrate they have a will to survive.
Other studies back up the doc, too.
Check Out These Animal-Friendly Activities
Plant a tree or a vegetable garden with your child. Play catch. Go hiking, camping, or canoeing. Build a tree house. Learn to surf or sail. The cruelty-free possibilities are endless.
[Source: http://www.peta.org/living/entertainment/reasons-not-to-teach-your-child-to-fish/]
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Thank you for the sharing, fishing is an extremely cruel hobby that causes immense suffering and damage to fish, even when they are released back into the water. However human does not realize what karma befalls but they have great time, fun going fishing.
I believe children are always eager to learn fast as they grow but parents has to monitor their child’s activity and behavior is especially important when they begin to demand for their choice.
https://bit.ly/3k6pYAM
Fishing harm the environment too!
The Environmental Protection Agency reports that high numbers of recreational boaters are causing damage to lakes, coastal waters, and rivers, including “high toxicity in the water; increased pollutant concentrations in aquatic organisms and sediments; increased erosion rates; increased nutrients, leading to an increase in algae and a decrease in oxygen … and high levels of pathogens.”
Every year, anglers leave behind a trail of tackle victim that includes millions of birds, turtles, dolphins, and other animals who suffer debilitating injuries after they swallow fishhooks or become entangled in fishing lines. Wildlife rehabilitators say that discarded fishing tackle is one of the greatest threats to aquatic animals.
Lead sinkers poison wildlife. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation reported that 30 percent of documented loon deaths were caused by lead poisoning.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this article. We should not harm any animals just for our entertainment or hobby.
Thank you for this sharing. Just like sport hunting, we should not agree to sport fishing because any form of hunting and fishing, whether for food, sport or worse still, for entertainment is causing great pain to the animals. And by indoctrinating our young generation in these activities, we create confusion in their young and kind minds. The prerequisite for these activities, hunting and fishing, is to have no empathy towards the pain of the animals. If we really care about the mind of the children, let’s imbue them with kindness and compassion.
This is a meaningful article on how not to teach a child such a harming activity like fishing. Awareness must be awakened in a child against any activity that brings harm to another being.
Don’t teach your child to fish. Even catching and releasing the fish afterwards is still cruel and harmful to the fish. Pain is involved, and afterwards the fish is weakened and becomes more vulnerable to preys and predators .
Fish as food for children causes them harm. The level of toxins like mercury in fish will interfere with brain development and the nervous system, causing delay in walking or talking, as well as learning disabilities. Farmed fish like salmon, carry the risk of cancer.
From the side of the fish, there is much pain and suffering. You can see that in the way the fish, when caught , struggles to escape. it wants to live, like us!
It will be much better for the child to be taught how to plant a tree or grow flowers or vegetables, to go hiking or camping, or build a treehouse! These are ‘cruelty-free’ activities that will help them to develop healthy bodies and minds .
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing article. We should not harm any animals whether they are from the land or the sea. Every animals are considered sentient and they too have feeling and will feel pain. We must always put ourselves in their shoes. If we don’t be tortured like that then we should not do it to the animals. We should give them all the love and care.
Regards,
Vivian
I used to love fishing when I was young and foolish. One day, as I tried to unhook a fish I just caught, I realised that the fish was actually feeling pain and was suffering a lot. I felt utterly bad, of course. Never have I fished again since that day.
Like all young boys, my sons too wanted to go fishing. Perhaps they think it is such a fun activity or a “macho, boy-man kind of pursuit”. After I told them my story about how I realised that fishing hooks can cause the fishes a great deal of pain, they have not asked to go fishing. They know that all animals do have feelings and can feel pain. Some time back at their school fair, they bought fishes that were on sale. I initially thought that they wanted to keep them but to my surprise, they wanted to release them at the lake near our house. So, we had our little mini animal liberation after blowing some mantras on the fishes. 🙂
I truly agree with Rinpoche that as parents, we should not only strive to give our kids the best schools, food and comforts in life but also the best spiritual foundation. Otherwise, these little monsters will grow into huge monsters. By that time, it might be too late to do anything.
Thank you with folded hands.
It is said that we retain long term things we learn when we are young. We also retain more of things we learn by doing them. While children will grow up to become their own self, what we teach them at a young age will inevitably shape and influence the kind of person they grow up to be.
On the surface, catch-and-release could almost seems like a human and compassionate act because we don’t kill the fish we catch but from another perspective it can seems more cruel. Imagine yourself being hunted. Yes, you will be release after being caught but in the process, the fear, the struggle to escape, the physical exhaustion, the physical injury, the suffocation is all real. Then after the ordeal and trauma, you are released but the experience and aftermath remains. Imagine for some fishes like those bred in “catch-and-release” ponds, this is a repetitive experience. Reminds me of being a slave gladiator in ancient Roman.
Exposing children to activities that create harm even to animals will not help instill loving compassion in them. Some of us may think it’s a tough world out there I want my children to be tough and be able to survive. Perhaps life is about more than just surviving. Do we want our children to grow up just to make it in this world or do we want them to have a happy, peaceful and beneficial life. Killing and taking lives even those of animals is unnatural. We should teach children to value lives, even animal lives. By valuing all living beings, it may also help us value our own and not take life for granted but living it to the full potential.
Fishes are sentient and feel pain and fear. Do not teach your child to fish.
Developing conscious habit does nobody a favor, it is for you and those you love.
Harnessing negative habits also only create harm because we are telling ourselves something that conflicts with our Nature we are instinctively connected to.
So, show your children the way to connect to their Nature of being loving, caring, responsible, tenacious by becoming loving individuals that see beyond self through simple and even convenient activities like:
– plant a tree
– save an animal
– walk barefoot on the beach
Dear Rinpoche ,
Thank you for sharing this post. Contrary to the public’s knowledge, fishing is indeed a cruel sport or leisure activity to be engaged in. There are some people who do it for a living, and those who do it for their own amusement. Either way, it is still a cruel thing to do it on a living being.
Some might say when they fish, they will release the fish back into the water and they think that they are doing something noble and kind. However, that is not the case. Imagine how much pain the fish will have to go through to be dragged out of the water with just a nail in their mouth. Just because the fish cannot scream or whine like other animals do when they are in pain, that doesn’t mean they can’t feel the pain.
In some countries, there is this dish where the fish is being served while it is still alive. The chef have to scale, gut, clean, cut and fry the fish with hot oil and serve it before the fish stop breathing. You can actually see the fish is still moving when its served. This is just plain barbaric. Imagine the pain the fish had to go through before they die.
We have to be kind to all beings. We cannot be focusing on saving one animal and turn a blind eye on the other one. This is not true compassion. It is called being clever to select which animal is benefit to us alive and which is not.
Chris
Fishing is an activity that many people think causes less damage to the environment and less suffering. Its sad that many people think this way. Many do not realise that fish feel pain too, and that fish also suffer. The fishing industry is taken very lightly compared to the slaughter houses. When really they are almost the same.
Sometimes when i tell people im a vegetarian they ask me: But you eat fish right? This is so wrong of them to think. By doing this people are treating fish as even less than land animals. Like fish do not even have feelings. So many think that fish is different, when its really not. In fact, even egg is the same as meat. Or milk for that matter. All substances that we humans consume, which come from animals, causes pain and suffering and is very bad.
Another thing that upsets me is how people actually use fishing as a somewhat “family bonding activity”. Its so so so wrong that families, or anybody, have to resort to fishing as a source of entertainment, or bonding. We are putting so many lives at stake, just for our selfish needs. Especially during catch and release. Catch and release may seem like a good think because we are not killing the fish, but its really even worse. Thats like getting shot in the arm and left alone. Wouldn’t that be painful? I don’t think we would want to feel that amount of pain. Then why do you put that kind of suffering on other beings?
Thanks Rinpoche for sharing this article. Below are some of the points I learned:
1. Do not kill and do not instill fishing interest to our kids. We as adults should show a good example.
2. We should have compassion to all living being including fish. We should avoid to free them from pain, fear and all shorts of suffering.
3. We leaving the in the world is inter connected to our environment. We must treat our environment good and not pollute it has the is a cycle and will affect the whole environment chain.
4. Always be alert of our action and the consequences it will bring. Avoid negative action.
5. Introduce healthy andpositive activities for our kids. Groom them to love the nature and avoid cruelty
I feel sorry for the fishys . I will not fish fishes
I’ve eaten a lot of fishes
I don’t know how much Mercury I’ve eaten
I totally agree with what is being said. Fishes do feel pain and they will cry in pain as well, just that we do not here them does not mean that they cannot make any noises. Human hearing is only ranges from 20Hz to 20kHz, meaning that there are still many sounds that we are not able to hear. So why think that fishes are not capable to make cries of help, pain and fear?
It is true that when fishes get hooked, they already feel the pain, much so that they have to struggle then after that they will experience the kind of climate and pressure changes that stresses so much on them. I used to think that catch and release will be better then killing the fish, however, now i know that even by releasing the fish it does not help as they will have changes on their bodies that will make them more prone to being harmed after that.
With all that said, we will not be able to help these fishes unless people know since young what is going on and how they are harming the fishes. Or eve educating children so that they will be able to influence their parents so that actions like fishing will no longer be carried out.
As said by Dr. Michael Fox, fish like all animals can feel pain too. Yes, torturing and killing them through such barbaric act of fishing them out is certainly abominable and heartless to the highest drgree. In accordance to the description in the blog article, it is heinous, horrified and torturious if not mindless too! As a matter of fact, such cruelty should not be shown to children too, don’t say to teach them how to fish in such an inhumane way. As said in the U.S., it is estimated 800,000 people in U.S. faced an excess lifetime of cancer from eating framed salmon, and that fish isn’t a health food, especially for kids and women. So what’s the purpose of teaching them to fish for such cancer risks!!! Such fish food, especially for kids is said to be conteminated with toxins of mercury which is said to be extremely hazardous to prevent women and children development, delaying walking and learning, thus causing disabilities. This is truly something to know!
I agree with what Dr.Michael Fox has said. It is very true that when you pull the fishes out of the water, they will struggle like crazy and it is really sad to see that. To me, it is almost impossible to ignore the feelings of the fishes suffocating due to lack of oxygen and water.
I kinda know how it feels like because when I was around the age of 4 or 5, there was a time where my grandmother at that time (Unfortunately, she passed away 10 years ago) brought my sister and I to the swimming to have play, but because we were still very young and did not know how to swim so we only play in the baby pool area. Then when we were splashing water to each other, I accidentally got choked from the water that my sister splashed so I went to sit down on the floor gap that separates the kids pool and adults pool and funnily, I somehow ended up rolling backwards and fell into the adult pool.
I struggled and try to swim to the top as much as I can, but it was just now working at all. I even remember that my late grandmother rushed over to the pool from the poolside where she was sitting and used her walking stick as something for me to hold on and pull me up, but I was already out of energy, suffocating (I didn’t know that it was such an uneasy and painful feeling to die of suffocation). And Finally, my sister successfully managed to save me out from the pool. I shared with everyone about this story is because I want to tell people that I have gone through suffocation (I wasn’t even close to the death point yet) and it is really painful. So I wish that everyone will acknowledge that fishing might be a fun ‘sport’ for you, but it will never be fun to the fishes which are suffocating.
Thank you Rinpoche for reminding us to be more mindful as parents in bringing up young children, if we truly love them and care for their future. Thank you for sharing the write-up from the PETA website. Yes, we should raise our children to regard the life of every being as precious, especially when we treasure our own life so much. It is true that life-long habits are usually formed in one’s young growing (formative) years.
Yes, fishing is a cruel pastime. Not that the fish we eat will contribute to our health and well-being, when the meat carries toxins that endanger the lives of those who eat the meat.We kill the life of a being that wanted to live, as much as we ourselves want to live. Furthermore, it wasn’t a painless death for them.
Teaching good habits ,like growing plants and vegetables and caring for animals(having pets and maintaining them well), inculcates in our children positive values of love, care (including care for our environment)and kindness.In this way, they will grow up with strong good habits entrenched in them.They will be happier people,and be more at peace with self and others.