User:SueSmith-MSc/draft1

broom etc
In 2018, Sneddon, Donald Broom, Culum Brown and others, published a paper that found that despite the empirical proof, sceptics still deny anything beyond reflex responses in fishes and state that they are incapable of complex cognitive abilities. Recent studies on learning have shown that cleaner wrasse fish, as well as parrots, perform better than chimpanzees, orangutans or capuchin monkeys in a complex learning task in which they have to learn to discriminate reliable food sources from unreliable ones. Goldfish learn to avoid an area where they have received an electric shock. Even when food has been previously provided in this area and the fish are strongly motivated to spend time there, they avoid it for three days, at which time they trade off their hunger with the risk of receiving another shock. This shows complex decision-making beyond simple reflexes.

Quotes
The American Veterinary Medical Association accepts that fish feel pain: "Evidence supports the position that finfish should be accorded the same considerations as terrestrial vertebrates in regard to relief from pain."