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Originally Posted by Master_Shake
I absolutely don't think humans are better than fish. But we are different. All I suggest is that we treat similar things similarly, but that we don't assign human values to unhuman things.
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If the fish were living in the wild, then so be it. Fight, die, live the normal cycle of a fish in its natural environment. But once we mess with that natural cycle of life and force the animal to exist on our terms, there is an implicit assignation of responsibility for that animal's wellbeing.
I.e. don't get the fish if you're just going to torture it - it's not right, not by the laws with which humans govern ourselves. This isn't about how the fish might normally live or die because we've taken the normal cycle out of the equation. We are responsible now. We should act like it.
My example is my brother - he had a cat that ended up, for whatever reason (tho I suspect it was the manner with which the cat was treated), peeing on his bed on a semi-regular basis. Rather than take responsibility to at least find the cat a home where he could go outside and have less of the stress that was causing the peeing, he said he didn't care what happened to the cat, it could be euthanized or shot for all he cared. That was wrong. Once he adopted the cat, it was HIS responsibility to make sure the cat was cared for properly, whether that cat would have died under different circumstances is irrelevant. He imposed the current circumstances on that cat.