Giving Compass' Take:

• Leon Kaye reports that the long-neglected animal welfare cause, fish pain, is finally gaining attention and funding. 

• How can funders build momentum for this movement? What has kept this, and other causes, from rising to the top of the animal welfare movement? 

• Learn about directing your giving to impact the most animals. 

The animal welfare movement has made impressive gains in recent years, but for the most part, this growing sense of awareness about how we treat the animals we eat has overlooked fish. Estimates suggest that 10 to 100 billion farmed fish are slaughtered annually, joined by anywhere from 1 to 3 trillion fish that are wild-caught (one United Kingdom NGO caps that number at 2.7 trillion).

Even at the estimates, the amount of fish killed annually is far more than the total number of people who have ever lived on the planet.

Now, more nonprofits, such as PETA and Mercy for Animals, are urging that this line of thinking applies to fish, especially as aquaculture becomes more critical to the global seafood supply. One company striving to make the fishing industry a more humane and ethical one is Seattle-based Blue North.  One of Blue North’s boats has been designed to reduce the stress and panic fish experience as they are caught. Watch for more steps like this to be taken to eliminate the pain and suffering of fish, while more consumers are educated about how and when these creatures feel pain.

Read the full article about fish pain and animal welfare by Leon Kaye at Triple Pundit.