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THE artist Marco Evaristti held an exhibition in 2000 at the Trapholt Art Museum in Denmark consisting of 10 blenders, each containing a live goldfish. The blenders were plugged in and some visitors chose to turn them on and liquidise the fish. It’s easy to imagine the uproar had an artist or gallery held an exhibition of, say, gerbils or kittens in food processors. So what makes fish different?

Do Fish Feel Pain? chronicles Victoria Braithwaite’s decade-long research programme to determine whether fish can detect painful stimuli and whether they are consciously aware of pain. This is an important…

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