It’s summer, and as many head to the beach with hopes of enjoying fresh seafood, the practice of killing live lobsters in boiling water is drawing new attention.
Around the world, many are beginning to question the commonly accepted methods for killing crustaceans. In March, a group of British scientists published a report stating that shellfish can process pain.
Legislation is already in place globally to protect crustacean rights. New Zealand counts shellfish on its list of animals protected by animal rights laws, Reggio Emilia, Italy forbids the boiling of lobsters and the British Shellfish Network dutifully advocates for lobster liberties. The recent influx of scientific experiments on crustacean pain tolerance and the rise in underwater animal activists has led many to ponder “can killing lobsters be humane?”
An article in The Atlantic explores the debate behind slaughtering lobsters.
Two words: lethal injection. If it’s good enough for criminals, it’s good enough for crustaceans.
On a vaguely related note, PETA wants California to rename Pescadero State Beach to Sea Kitten State Beach. In exchange, it will pay to keep the beach open. BTW, the town of Pescadero has an exceptional restaurant called Duartes which grows their own vegetables and makes their own pies. Uncle Dave recommended!
Sorry I didn’t notice. Are there words below the picture?
Has she got a lobster in that trunk?
i’m hungary i like to broil them,so good who cares,lets eat,thanks
Ok so how the hell are you suppose to get animal protien without hurting any animals? Or is this just an issue of pushy vegetarians trying to protect the animal kingdom one species at a time. If I had to choose between becoming a vegetarian or starving to death, I’d eat a vegetarian.
It seems that people are getting “feeling pain” mixed up with “suffering”.
Yes, lobsters feel pain, as do all living things. Pain being defined as reacting to harmful stimulus. Its a very basic survival technique, which forces the animal to avoid things that damage it.
This is totally different to suffering, which implies that the creature is self aware and consious. I think pretty much anyone with an understanding of Lobsters can agree that we would not consider lobsters to be suffering. They are not aware of their own existance or going through distress as a human would think of it. Its more like a chemical reactions…a very complex one, but still just a reaction to external stimulus being transmitted through a rather basic neural network. Its like aying your computer is suffering because it reacted badly to a virus and stopped working.
In conclusion, this is stupid, and as far as scientific consensus goes, only higher mammals can suffer, and only humans at the level that we know it as.
Not for nothing, but as much as love seafood, even as a kid, it always bothered me that live lobsters were dropped in boiling water. -that has got to suck.
Of course, as soon as the critter arrived with lemon and butter, i forgot all about it’s boiling demise, but still.
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i’m sure if a lobster had the ability to squeal, there would most likely be a different approach to killing them.
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about the “tail” in the pic above.. that is one odd looking (bubble) butt. (probably looks better in jeans.)
-nice cushion, but not worthy of my genes.
-s
In the end, the reason to show as much kindness as possible to other creatures is that as the Great Karmic Wheel rolls, we may receive some of the same kindness in return.
We respect ourselves when we respect others.
Kill them as quickly and as suredly as possible. I think being thrown into boiling water is actually pretty quick. A count to three in one cooking show I saw yesterday. Other methods are sure to be less certain? Even beheading might cause more pain over time/aka suffering?
@#5 It simply does not matter if it is pain, suffering or both. As long as they are consumed, pain, suffering, dismemberment ,… is all completely natural and regular everyday happening even if humans are completely out of the picture.
I in particular think that we are unfairly excluding possibility that most living organisms can both feel pain and suffer. Yet, I still have no problem eating live oysters, putting live lobster in boiling water for cooking or plucking that apple from the tree…
Because it is Natural and the Life is by its very function vicious, or there wouldn’t be any of it…
Crustaceans are profoundly intelligent creatures.
I say we them raw. Raw!! yeah!! I like it when my food looks at me when I’m eating them.
#9 and soooooo delicious.
11 GeekFive,
Lobsters are BLECH! Give me a nice Dungeness crab any day… and that chicks ass on the side, thanks.
Interesting ‘Back Story” on the Girl… I am from maine, so we know a thing or 2 about lobsters… hey taste good… the rest doesnt matter… but I like the choice of Pictures for the story!!… she does have abit of an odd looking rear end, but it may be the angle of the photo… lets get a 3-D Blog so we can find out for our selves?.. 🙂 cheers boys!!
Ok, enough is enough.
What these “nature lovers” seem to forget is this simple point – many many wild animals EAT other wild animals WHILE THEY ARE STILL ALIVE.
I would add another point in this debate, but it would be lost on about 95% of the posters on this blog.
Baby’s Got Back…
Duartes is also famous for always having reasonably priced abalone on the menu. It’s farmed just down the road, and mighty darned tasty.
These things are basically just underwater spiders. We step on them all the time. What’s the diff?
Hey! These little bastards spend their evil lives eating LIVE fish and LIVE mollusks and frequently even CANNIBALIZING their own YOUNG! I say boiling’s too good for ’em. I think we ought to use that ass to crush them alive!
We really need some lions and sharks to take out the “poor little foodstuffs” camp.
I’m all for beings not suffering, but unless the peta camps can show unequivocally (you know, scientificatiously) that creature “a” understood and suffered what happened to it, they’re just going to make people go to the next county or state to eat their yummies.
In any case, the damned things will get eaten by other creatures on the seafloor; I suppose Peta will next try to get sharks and turtles to stop eating.
Utter idiocy. We really need a major Darwin event soon.
Murder the babies but save the lobsters, frogs and seals. LOL
That’s a BIG turd cutter!
I’m no vegetarian but lobsters and cockroaches are cousins. Bon appetite.
Is that some woman’s ass as seen through a Fun House mirror?? Wow, that’s an unnaturally huge butt!
According to my big, wise cookbook, the method shown in the video is in fact illegal in Germany. The reasoning behind this is that it causes prolonged pain for the lobster if inexpertly executed. The book goes on to explain that the only allowable method is throwing the lobster into a big pot of boiling water.
But then, maybe legislation has changed since that book was written. It all boils down (pun intended) to this: If you’re going to kill an animal for food (or any other purpose, actually), make it quick.
Special Ed…. cant you say aythng else… you said the same on another Blog post… Get off My Bus…
That’s a very motivational poster
Leave Me! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWHYprT65YY#t=2m04s
(obligatory)
To add my two cents here:
As a general rule, I don’t eat anything that has more than four legs.
meh, in the end,crabs and crustaceans
aren’t what they’re all cracked up to be..
They can have my lobster when they pry the Lobster Cracker out of my cold dead hand.