2 min read
Scientists in the U.K. are pushing for a ban on boiling lobsters and crabs because their recent study confirms crustaceans feel pain—but don’t we already know that?
A Needless Experiment: All Lobster Suffering Is “Avoidable Suffering”
The scientists who are calling for a ban on crustacean boiling are pointing to the U.K.’s Welfare of Animals at the Time of Killing (WATOK), which makes it illegal to cause “any avoidable pain, distress, or suffering” to protected animals while killing them. According to their letter, because lobsters are considered “sentient” by U.K. law, it should be illegal to boil them alive.
However, the scientists who are calling for a ban on crustacean cruelty subjected crabs and lobsters to painful experiments to, once again, prove they feel pain.
Many other scientists and studies have already determined that lobsters, like all animals, can feel pain. When kept in tanks, they may suffer from stress associated with confinement, low oxygen levels, and crowding. According to some scientists, lobsters may feel even more pain than we would in similar situations—like being boiled alive.
Thankfully, it’s easy not to cause any “avoidable suffering” to crabs and lobsters; Don’t eat them.
It’s Selfish to Eat Shellfish: Go Vegan Today
Like dolphins and other animals, a lobster uses complicated signals to explore their surroundings and establish social relationships. They take long-distance seasonal journeys and can cover 100 miles or more each year, assuming they manage to avoid the millions of traps set along the coasts. Many lobsters and crabs are killed by their most formidable predator: humans, who consume tens of millions of them each year in the U.S. alone.
To help end the suffering of crabs, lobsters, and all other animals used for food, go vegan today!
