Is boiling Lobster alive humane?

I am a carnivore, I like to eat meat, I like to eat fish and I like to eat crustaceans. I’m not a tree-hugging hippy, I’m not a vegetarian and I’m not squeamish about killing for food. However there are three dishes that I will not eat: Veal, Shark-fin soup and Lobster.

Respectively I consider them to be: cruel, unnecessary and just down-right barbaric. At the same time I don’t judge others for doing so, with the exception of shark-fin soup which is idiotic (it won’t cure cancer), wasteful (the rest of the shark is thrown alive back into the ocean) and irresponsible (shark populations have been decimated by over 90% as a direct result of long-line fishing and fining practices).

My decision not to eat Lobster was based on an instinct that no matter what chefs might tell you, lobsters are bound to feel pain as they are boiled alive. I’m less than delighted to learn that my instinct may just have been proven correct…

Two new studies by Robin Elwood indicate that crustaceans feel both pain and stress.

From Discovery News

“In the past, some scientists reasoned that since pain and stress are associated with the neocortex in humans, all creatures must have this brain structure in order to experience such feelings. More recent studies, however, suggest that crustacean brains and nervous systems are configured differently. For example, fish, lobsters and octopi all have vision, Elwood said, despite lacking a visual cortex, which allows humans to see.

It was also thought that since many invertebrates cast off damaged appendages, it was not harmful for humans to remove legs, tails and other body parts from live crustaceans. Another study led by Patterson, however, found that when humans twisted off legs from crabs, the stress response was so profound that some individuals later died or could not regenerate the lost appendages.

Chris Sherwin, a senior research fellow in the Clinical Veterinary Science division at the University of Bristol, has also studied pain in invertebrates.

Sherwin told Discovery News, “The question of whether invertebrates experience pain is fundamental to our legislation that protects animals and our behavior, attitude and use of these highly complex organisms.”

He said that while the recent studies suggest crustaceans experience “something akin to pain, rather than fixed, reflex responses,” additional research is needed.”

Food for thought I guess, but I for one will continue to operate under the assumption that anything that must be boiled alive in order for it to taste good, is not food.

Full Discovery article HERE