Are there "fish factory farms"? What are some cruel conditions that fish are kept in?

Haven't you seen Happy Feet? What they do is like that, except no one found a tap-dancing penguin to make humanity care about the destruction fishing is doing to the oceans or planet.

Oh yeah, and this might help your search.

http://www.nofishing.net/

:)

Oh yes, and chickens are quite possibly treated the worst of all animals.

Good luck

Yes, there are "fish factory farms" however sympathizing with fish is difficult for people. Not to mention I suspect a video of one would have many people saying, so what? Whats important to understand here is, a. fish eating at the level that the world currently does will have disastrous consequences for the world ecosystem. Overfishing is a real risk here (when we are talking about wild caught, and the majority of fish are), and "fish factory farms" contribute to ground and drinking water pollution. b. Fish are sentient, and sentient beings can suffer. If, as in abolitionist animal rights theory we believe that sentience ( the ability to suffer and know that it is "I" that is feeling the pain) is all that is is required for membership in the moral community, then we cannot exclude fish.

Science is proving that fish are actually quite smart. The more we learn about animals the more we come to realize how much like us they really are.

You might want to search for Alaskan Salmon farms and how they almost led to the extinction of native Salmon! The 'open water' farms there spread parasites into the ocean that killed untold millions of non-farmed fish. I'll give the company involved a *slight* amount of credit for admitting they caused the problem and are attempting to solve it (but they still s*ck). Onshore fish farms cause fish kills from the pollutants and diseases they release and are disrupting ecosystems world wide when farmed non-native fish escape into the wild.

Turkey farms... The 'modern' turkeys are raised under cover because they're so dumb they'll drown when it rains. They aren't normally raised in cages (like chickens) but they are typically kept in very crowded conditions (think Tokyo subway car). The birds typically have breathing problems because they've been bred to give you a large breast and not been bred to be healthy. If you ever visit a turkey farm you'll be issued a dust mask to help keep you from choking on all the crud in the air.

Turkey and fish farms just aren't as 'photogenic' as rows of chicken cages!

Hello pickledgrapenuts:

I have seen some videos such as you mention about the inhumane treatment of some animals, it is sickening to me because I grew up on a farm. We grew row crops, things like wheat, corn, soybeans etc and we also grew pigs and hogs. I helped build some ponds and we grew catfish and rainbow trout. Now I am a college professor and teach a program called aquaculture technology.

You must realize that when someone makes a video they are trying to put forward a certain point of view. From my experiences on the farm working with the animals and fish (we had chickens too and a cow) I know that these animals can be grown properly and treated well even in high density confinement. That's why I know there must be a motive behind those awful videos of mistreated animals; the things I saw on them would never be done by most decent people even to mass produced farm animals.

The same applies to fish and fish farming; I have seen videos of drift gill nets with dead turtles and porpoises in them; the video is trying to rally people against fishing and fish farming by generalizing all fishing as bad and inferring the same bad sentiments against fish farming.

One thing that I would encourage you to do before deciding to not eat fish is to investigate the nutrition that you get from eating fish and seafood. The omega-3 oils are very important for health and immune system development.

For more information check the webspace for my program:

http://main2.carteret.edu/~kemps/

and if you're looking for a fun field to go into please consider applied marine sciences, we have a great time.

Good luck with your pursuit of information to help you make a decision.

Fish farms can be inhumne. See the first link below for more info on fish farms as there is too much to mention here.

Also, see the second link on the cons of eating fish in general.

theres some info on this site about fish factory farming http://www.goveg.com/

I am glad you are becoming Vegetarian! This link helped me so I am sure it will help you! http://www.vegan.org/