Jenny MoxhamHow Would You Feel?
By Jenny Moxham
An Animal Rights Poem from All-Creatures.org

All of God's creatures have rights, a fact that most people don't seem to recognize. This includes both human and non-human animals, but not all of them can speak for themselves.


How Would You Feel?
By Jenny Moxham

How would you feel if you reached for some lunch
And just as you happily started to munch,
A sharp metal hook that was hidden within
Got stuck in your throat and tore into your skin.

Then even before you could utter a cry
A tug on the hook left you dangling high.
How would you feel as you swung in the air?
Would you think it was fun? Would you think it was fair?

Would you think it was fun as you struggled in vain
The hook in your mouth causing ever more pain?
How would you feel as you winced and you wailed,
Tormented and tortured and firmly impaled?
How would you feel being cunningly caught,
Like all of the fish you've impaled for your sport?
How would you like it if out of the blue,
Somebody, suddenly did it to you?


Despite the fact that scientists have proved that fish feel pain in much the same way as birds and mammals, angling continues to be promoted as a "fun" recreation.

In Victoria (Australia) millions of dollars of taxpayers money has been allocated to promoting fishing as a "fun" activity. At Free Family Fishing events there are workshops for children as young as four and hundreds of vulnerable 'factory' farmed fish are deposited at the venue on the day to ensure a catch.

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