Myal, I am not sure I understand your post but I will try and respond to your observations as best I can. What I was trying to say was that if you do not like the idea of a fish on a hook, what about the bait? or the microscopic orgainisms that die when you boil water. I guess size does matter? If fish are experiencing "massive pain" "jumping and yowling" etc..what about the worm?
I do not advocate prolonging the death of any animal when it serves no purpose to do so.
There are a couple of examples I can think of where keeping an animal alive but restrained would be to your advantage.
One is live bait for fishing. A bait fish in "distess" will have a huge draw to live bait feeding, predatory fish.
The "attraction to a struggle" can be exploited once your catch is hooked too. Quite often fish are attracted to the one you have on the line and
and another line in the water will get you hooked up again very quickly.
Coyotes, jackals, dingos, fox, raccoon, bears etc.. may come at a run responding to the screaming sounds of a smaller animal in distress. Not saying you should keep a rabbit in your pocket and sqeeze it, just understand the cause and effect so you can exploit it if needed (make a call to mimic that sound).
Another is trapping in very hot weather. An animal restrained in a trap will be fresh meat, one that was caught in a kill trap an hour after you set it yesterday may not be fit to eat by the time you check it today. So IF you have a choice on a restraining set or a kill set, what do you choose? Do you want the animal to be caught and killed as quickly as possible and risk waisting the meat or do you want fresh meat?
Also when animals are traveling together, one animal caught and restrained in one trap will often cause the other to stay in the area and circle around the trapped animal. You can use this to your advantage and place a trap or snare to catch this second animal. One of the reasons multiple sets in good locations work well is that there may already be one animal in one of the traps.
I seem to recall reading about tribes that break the legs of small animals/lizards etc.. and throw them in a corner of the hut to eat later. A primitive but effective way of preserving food that does not sit well with western thoughts on animal welfare. Not pretty but survival none the less, and another example of prolonging death for a reason.
Sorry once again for the topic deviation but perhaps someone who does not already know will find this information useful.
