Every day millions of bait animals are put through unimaginable pain and suffering. Regardless of whether animals can speak or have cute little eyes that can look back at you, they experience and relate to their environment the same way that we learn to. Regardless of size, color, race or species, pain is pain and suffering is suffering. Helpless minnows are put into overcrowded, unoxegenated water and as they struggle to breathe they're netted and skewered through the head or tail and tossed into unfamiliar waters where they await their fate. Worms, either whole or in torn pieces are skewered with sharp steel hooks and drowned in the name of "sport". Shockingly, at a time when other developed countries have been moving to artificial lures in the United States anglers have actually been using more live bait. As a civilized nation, we have an ethical obligation to prevent animal cruelty and to treat bait as sentient beings. In doing so we elevate the human spirit.

Bait animals , like all animals, have feelings, and should be protected from cruelty. They are intelligent, social, and affectionate creatures with individual personalities.