I used to go fishing once in awhile when I was a boy. It was catch and
release, mostly of sunfish no bigger than my hand. One day, when I was
in my early teens, I saw a man with a group of boys showing how to
remove a hook from a caught fish. It must have been a barbed hook,
because before my eyes, this man pulled a chunk of the fish’s mouth out
when removing the hook, and then tossed the badly wounded fish back into
the water. I never went fishing after that. The only reason fishing is
regarded as a wholesome activity and not a cruel past-time is because
people cannot hear the fish screaming in pain. But, we can see them
gasping for air. It’s willful disregard on our part, a fiction that what
we see happening is not an animal fighting for his life. Fish feel pain.
Fishing is cruelty to animals.

Michael Gurwitz