Somehow I have never quite believed the theory that chucking a lobster or a crab into a pot of boiling water was a good way for it to go… Did it really not feel any pain?… Hard to believe.
Well, yes, apparently it does feel pain – a lot of pain and for quite a long time too, according to the Shellfish Network’s Fact Sheet no. 4 and to a paper by Stephanie Yue, PhD for the Humane Society of the US, among others.
So I was glad to get, in my capacity as a member of the Guild of Food Writers, a letter from Crustastun, manufacturers of an electro stunning device which, hopefully, renders the lobsters or crabs insensible before they are killed so that they do not feel any pain. Not that Crustastun are expecting me to invest in a stunner for home use – they are designed for professional restaurant and catering kitchens. But they are hoping that I will tell my readers about the pain suffered by crustaceans killed by normal methods and encourage them to harass their local seafood restaurant to buy a Crustastun.
And I am very happy to encourage any of you who are reading this blog to do just that. Why should shellfish be any less worthy of our concern than intensively reared cows, battery hens or geese fat-fed to swell their livers to provide us with foie gras?
Well, of course trey feel pain. They have a nervous system and are sensitive to their surroundings which is basically what pain is. But apart from the pain felt by boiled lobsters has anyone thought of the agony fish go through as they are ‘drowned’ on being caught. If we killed livestock by dumping them in a pool of water until they died by drowning the reaction would be horror. But that is exactly what happens to fish whose natural habitat is water. They can’t live out of water so they die by ‘drowning’ in the air.
Not nice…
You’re so right. That’s why I’m a vegetarian and will only ‘allow’* meat of fish that has been treated humanely in our house! Personally the whole matter is no sustainable and I know that’s ambiguous. That’s why my daughter Kitty is a 4th generation veggie. She decided during the BSE crisis and why I only eat goat’s cheese and milk, after all where did this all come from. Feeding cattle with sheep’s brains ergo scabies = BSE. D’uh as Homer Simpson would say! BC
* I don’t get much say but I try
When I lived in Canada many years ago advice was to put the lobster in the freezer to stun/kill it before boiling it.
I placed my live lobsters in a large dish full of beer and left the there for a while. They seemed to relax and did not scream when I finally placed them n boiling waters. I hope they did not feel any pain. Your feed back would be appreciated ..
Not really sure that I can comment…..