The Swiss government this week put a ban on the practice of throwing live lobsters into boiling water; they will be required to be stunned before they are cooked or killed, starting in March. According to Swiss public broadcaster RTS, only electric shock or the “mechanical destruction” of the lobster’s brain will be accepted methods of stunning the animals.
The Swiss government also said it would no longer be permitted to transport live marine crustaceans like lobsters on ice or in icy water, ruling instead that they should “always be held in their natural environment”.
What is the rationale and the ethical and moral questions behind such rules? Do these rules matter when the end result is death and consumption of the animals anyways?
David Foster Wallace, in his seminal essay “Consider the Lobster”, posed the following question and explored various answers and opinions -
Is it all right to boil a sentient creature alive just for our gustatory pleasure? A related set of concerns: Is the previous question irksomely PC or sentimental? What does “all right” even mean in this context? Is it all just a matter of individual choice?
Much of the debate for “humane” killing of animals revolves around the sensation of pain and the corresponding suffering experienced by animals. Animal rights advocates and some scientists argue that if you have to kill an animal, it must be done in a manner that minimize pain and suffering.
Prof. Bob Elwood, an animal behavior researcher at the Queen’s University Belfast, has strongly argued that crustaceans feel pain and his team have performed experiments that demonstrate that crustaceans learn to avoid electrical shocks administered by experimenters. Besides, anyone who has seen a lobsters twitching and trying to escape the boiling pot cannot help feel that there is some suffering being experienced.
I cannot help being reminded of this cartoon by Gary Larson many moons ago —
Other scientists and the Maine Lobster Institute argue that lobsters and other crustaceans do not possess complex nervous systems to process pain. Whatever twitching we observe during cooking is a result of a reflex escape action, not related to pain.
Another argument one could make is that there are no rules for “humane” killing of animals (I use that term generically to include crustaceans, etc.) by predators in the wild, so why should we care?
The wiki page on “Pain in crustaceans” has a comprehensive description of the philosophical arguments on the issue over the years, research findings by various organizations and legislation on the subject around the world.
Boiling lobsters alive is already illegal in some places, including New Zealand and Reggio Emilia, Italy, according to the animal rights group Viva.
Of course, the best way to way to totally avoid the issue is to just stop eating lobsters and other “animals” and stick to plants for food.
Please keep in mind that this Swiss legislation is not over whether lobsters and other crustaceans should be eaten or not, just how they should be killed before they are cooked. Similar laws exist in most countries over the slaughter of livestock.
Also, let’s avoid conflating this with the complex issue of abortion.
Further Reading
- The Swiss Consider the Lobster. It Feels Pain, They Decide. — www.nytimes.com/…
- It will be illegal to boil lobsters alive in Switzerland — www.zmescience.com/…
- Pain and stress in crustaceans? — www.appliedanimalbehaviour.com/…
- Shock avoidance by discrimination learning in the shore crab (Carcinus maenas) is consistent with a key criterion for pain — jeb.biologists.org/…
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Pain in crustaceans — en.wikipedia.org/...