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FOREST AND STREAM 
P)o Fish Feel ‘Pain? 
O CCASIONALLY a correspondent writes 
us, asking this question. No definite an¬ 
swer can be forthcoming, for the good 
and sufficient reason that no one knows. But we 
may deduce from the thousands of instances and 
experiences encountered in the angling world, 
that fish, like all lower orders of the animate 
creation, lack the sensibilities that characterize 
the more highly developed species. 
This is not to say that pain is non-existent in 
fishes, for fish have sensitory nerves and, there¬ 
fore, feeling. Forest and Stream has printed in¬ 
numerable stories of fish, taken with hooks lodged 
in their mouths, some but a moment before the 
successful capture. Almost every angler can re¬ 
late tales of this nature, and more than that, of 
fish very seriously wounded having given abso¬ 
lutely no indication of a feeling of pain or dis¬ 
comfort. 
These stories are true, but they are all based 
on the conclusion that a continued seeking after 
food is evidence that pain is lacking. Now even 
human beings, wounded, will not always refuse 
food. Where it is not forthcoming from the 
hand of attendance or sympathy, effort will be 
made to supply the demands of nature. 
It is foolish, perhaps, to compare fish with 
highly organized man, but it is best to put this 
question on a basis where it can be discussed 
from a proper standpoint. 
We know that fish have no brain to speak of; 
their nervous structure is elementary. Nature has 
implanted in fishes two dominant impulses—to 
feed, and to reproduce their own kind. These 
prevail over everything else—in fact anything else 
is lacking. Hunger and the breeding instinct 
drive the fish. 
A fish hooked in the bony structure of the 
mouth cannot feel much, if any, pain. The nerve 
structure there is lacking. As a matter of fact 
there is not much nerve structure in the anatomy 
of the fish, aside from the main centers of com¬ 
munication. Probably the greatest degree of sens¬ 
ible suffering that a fish can experience is to be 
taken from the water and left to die in the air. 
That, however, is needless torture. No angler 
worthy the name is ever guilty of a crime of this 
sort. He is careful to despatch his catch prompt¬ 
ly and as mercifully as possible. If through care¬ 
lessness, laziness or callousness he does not do 
this, he does not belong to the chosen brother¬ 
hood. Anathema should be his dole. 
The Government’s Niggardly Policy 
T HE Agricultural Appropriation bill, which 
passed the House finally on May 2, carried 
an item of $25,000 for the maintenance of 
bird and game reservations. This was an in¬ 
crease of $4,000 over the amount originally 
named in the bill, and credit is due Representa¬ 
tive Edmund Platt of the 26th Congressional 
district, New York, for having persuaded an un¬ 
willing Congress to grant even this slight con¬ 
cession. We are not acquainted with Mr. Platt’s 
politics—that does not matter in this connection 
—but it is a pleasure to record that he labored 
earnestly to get more money for this important 
work, and though results were meagre, the fault 
was not his. Possibly had the great outdoor 
public of the United States given him some de¬ 
gree of support, the shameful neglect of Con¬ 
gress to do its plain duty would not have been 
allowed to pass almost unheeded. 
Think of it! The 68 Federal game and bird 
reservations, with the Nation Bison range of 
Alaska, the Jackson Hole elk refuge in Wyo¬ 
ming, the 4,000 acre game preserve on the Wind 
Cave National Park in South Dakota, together 
with other important projects, are to be main¬ 
tained on an appropriation of only $25,000. This 
is less than $400 for each park or refuge. The 
testimony of Dr. T. S. Palmer, who appeared 
before one of the Congressional committees, was 
to the effect that the sum was utterly inadequate, 
and that one large reservation off the coast of 
Georgia had been abandoned because of lack of 
funds. Also the Laysan Island reservation in 
the Hawaiian Islands was visited last year by 
poachers, who killed some 300,000 birds, mostly 
albatrosses, for their plumage. This great reser¬ 
vation has no warden, and the same is true of 
many smaller refuges. 
Considered from an economic standpoint alone, 
the activities of bird life are supposed to save to 
the farmers of this country more than five hun¬ 
dred million dollars annually. But Congress, 
aside from a handful of members, does not seem 
to have the slightest conception of this fact, or 
if it entertains some dim ideas on the subject, it 
conceals them successfully. 
The same Congress, however, is getting ready 
to pass a $39,000,000 river and harbor bill, carry¬ 
ing appropriations so extravagant that even 
case-hardened politics revolts against some of 
them. When one million dollars can be thrown 
away on a stream that army engineers report 
will require the drilling of artesian wells to make 
navigable, and keeping in mind that the eight 
hundred and fifty million dollars expended up to 
this time by the Government on waterways has 
been largely wasted, the neglect and indifference 
of Congress in the matter of wild life conserva¬ 
tion appears all the more glaring. 
Game and birds have no votes, and by the same 
token it is beginning to look as though their hu¬ 
man friends have none either, or if they have, 
they do not care enough to exercise their privilege. 
The Shelter Island Deer Case 
N EW YORK has been stirred up more or less 
of late over what is known as the Shelter 
Island deer situation. Shelter Island lies 
at the eastern end of Long Island Sound, west of 
Montauk Point and a short distance north of the 
island proper. 
Many years ago a wealthy resident of Shelter 
Island began to breed deer in a private park. 
Some of the animals escaped and under favor¬ 
able circumstances the number increased rapidly, 
particularly so because of the protective laws 
which prevented their slaughter. The farmers 
and gardeners of Shelter Island have complained 
that the deer have been ruining crops. The pro¬ 
tests became so loud, and from an economic 
standpoint were so well justified, that the New 
York Game Conservation Commission issued an 
order that the deer should be rounded up and 
exterminated by the state game wardens. Mr. 
George D. Pratt, chairman of the Commission, 
himself an ardent sportsman, deplored this de¬ 
cision, but confessed that the state had no money 
to capture the deer alive, even if that were pos¬ 
sible, and the only relief to the suffering agri¬ 
culturists was to kill the deer. This led to equal¬ 
ly loud protests from individuals, sportsmen’s 
clubs, etc., and such a flood of letters and tele¬ 
grams poured in to the Commissioner’s office that 
the order was rescinded and another substituted 
to the effect that if private contributions suffi¬ 
cient to cover the cost could be raised, the state 
would endeavor to capture the deer alive and 
transfer them to the Adirondacks or other suit¬ 
able places. 
We are sorry to say that despite the efforts 
of state wardens and volunteer assistants but few 
deer have been captured and the chances of suc¬ 
cess seem slight. Quite a number of the animals, 
driven to the shore of the island, plunged into 
the water and swam to the Long Island main¬ 
land and escaped. It was estimated at first 
that at least two hundred deer were running wild 
on the island, but this number is probably ex¬ 
aggerated. No question has been raised that the 
animals were a nuisance to the farmers. Still 
there is a feeling of regret that one of the most 
interesting colonies of wild life in the East is 
thus being broken up. Wild life is disappearing 
too rapidly as it is. However, it is certain that 
the state will not resort to extreme methods 
until every possible means of getting the deer off 
the island alive have been attempted. 
The pleasing part of the whole situation—if 
indeed there can be anything pleasing in a matter 
that may call for the sacrifice or even the break¬ 
ing up of this band of beautiful creatures—is the 
demonstration that under proper circumstances 
game can be propagated and made to increase, 
even to the point of infringing on civilization. 
If as a last extremity the deer have to be killed 
we hope that it will be done under the auspices 
of the state itself, and not in the brutal way that 
Connecticut is trying to correct an alleged simi¬ 
lar situation, with a law that permits people to 
shoot deer indiscriminately in season and out of 
season whenever the animals are found on culti¬ 
vated lands. 
Eighteen States Have “Buck’’ Taws 
G OVERNOR WHITMAN of New York has 
vetoed the bill permitting the shooting of 
does. The bill by the amendments pro¬ 
posed gave protection only to fawns, for it pro¬ 
vided that during the open season a person might 
take one deer not less than a year old, of either 
sex. In his memorandum Governor Whitman 
said: 
“No person can conceive of a surer way of 
exterminating deer than that provided under the 
proposed bill which permits the killing of the 
breeders. I believe that the genuine sportsmen 
of the state are in favor of the retention, with¬ 
out change, of the present so-called ‘buck law.’ 
“In eighteen states, including New York, the 
killing of female deer is prohibited by law. For 
New York to step out of this column of states 
would, in my judgment, be a long step backward 
in the matter of conservation, and I believe that 
this state cannot afford to offer such an example 
as this to the world. 
“The number of hunting fatalities in this state 
is considerably lower than in states without such 
a law as the present one, the theory being that a 
hunter who has to look carefully. enough to as¬ 
certain whether the animal at which he is about 
to fire has horns is not likely to mistake another 
hunter for a deer.” 
