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The arguments for and against pain in crustaceans is covered quite well in this 2018 article from The Guardian that focuses on lobsters: Is it wrong to boil lo
by vanilla-almond 5y ago
The arguments for and against pain in crustaceans is covered quite well in this 2018 article from The Guardian that focuses on lobsters:
Is it wrong to boil lobsters alive? https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/11/is-it-wrong-to-boil-lobsters-alive https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/11/is-it-wrong-to...
Some key points from The Guardian article:
- Boiling alive lobsters is illegal in New Zealand and Switzerland
- Robert Elwood, a professor at Queen's University Belfast, is a leading researcher in this field. He believes lobsters should be killed before boiling.
- Accepted wisdom about crustacean behaviour to painful stimuli is that it is a reflex, not a reaction to pain.
- No experiment can answer questions about pain in crustaceans definitively, but Elwood's research makes him see "as much evidence for pain in crustaceans as there is in many vertebrates".
- The argument against crustacean pain is that their brain structure is so different to ours. We know where pain occurs in the human brain, but those equivalent brain regions do not exist in crustaceans.
- Robert Steneck, professor of marine sciences at the University of Maine, has been studying lobsters since 1983: "I'm not convinced they feel pain...The problem has more to do with how we anthropomorphise various critters"
- Maisie Tomlinson, a campaigner for a charity called Crustacean Compassion, says "It’s estimated that an edible crab that is boiled alive may take up to three minutes to lose consciousness. That’s something that would be unconscionable in a vertebrate animal, where they talk about milliseconds to lose consciousness [in a slaughterhouse]"
- Is there a best way to kill a lobster? For a restaurant, professor Robert Elwood says "I would have [a device] that gave them electrical stunning, which completely destroys the central nervous system in a microsecond".
- Teknoman117 5y agoI was always told that the reason lobster is usually sold live is because bacteria in the lobster starts to multiply quickly after they die and the meat will become unsafe. Cooks have told me to either run a knife through their brain or throw them in a freezer for half an hour to shut them down. Incidentally, I used to do the latter as a kid when catching bugs outside to feed a green anole I caught and was taking care of for a Boy Scout merit badge...
- vanilla-almond 5y ago"...bacteria in the lobster starts to multiply quickly after they die and the meat will become unsafe" I have heard this too (e.g. https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/why-are-lobsters-cooked-alive-and-do-they-feel-pain/ https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/why-are-lobsters-cooked-...). I assume using a 'stun machine' will deliver a electric jolt to the lobster and it would be boiled immediately after.