Fishing, fish and life…
Fishing, fish and life
People say that fishing is very relaxing…. A bright sunny afternoon, you go to the lake side, sink into that seat on your little boat with your son, drop in the hook and wait for your bait to attract that fish that you bring back home, cook and eat for supper….. Sounds almost romantic!
And some fish for fun…. the big fish! The tunas or the blue marlins or may be an occasional shark… the fight, the sport, the manly feel… it all comes together when you take a photograph with your big catch and frame it for your visitors to see in your office; or may be even send out the big fish to be stuffed and sent back to you… a souvenir that you can pride yourself with, for the years to come!
And people fish at scale… large boats, deep seas, big nets, thousands of fish… a profitable business! Fish tastes good!!!
Now a quick “behind the scenes” view of the same set of incidents:
An innocent creature that has the intellect of no greater than an infant is tricked one afternoon into mistaking a cruel sharp hook for food. While this food (bait) itself was brutally shoved through its tender body onto this stake, its purpose was to attract what would then lead to the suffering and death of another innocent creature. The fish that then bites into the hook has its sharp arrow head pierce through its pallet. The pain is acute and the poor fish starts to struggle to get off…. but this desperate attempt only leads to the next stage of its suffering…. The man holding the fishing line is prompted at the other end to reel the fish out of its eco system into an atmosphere where it can no longer breathe. Now on land, the deathly struggle intensifies! The pain in the pallet… the fast depleting air in its little lungs… It’s now a matter of a few minutes more before life escapes its beautiful little body. And should it take longer, the fisrherman is ready with his baton to beat it up to help cease it off its life faster; albeit with a little more pain… a little more cruelty!
That little son of that man who was having his relaxing afternoon sees all of this… comes back home and now sees his mom de-scale the dead fish… and then the skin is peeled off the fish to reveal its internal organs… the blood, the flesh, the bones… they are all viewed but as things to roast or disposed off in the trash can!
What does the psychology book say about the desensitizing impact all of this brutality has on that nascent brain? Where do we draw the line?
If to some, the fish is not significant enough, to others, the chicken is not, while the goat meets the same criteria for certain others, the cow or the deer to a few other brave hearts and so on…
Where does it end?
How close to human life does it have to get, before the chords of the sensitive human heart, start to sting in favor of life???
