Lobster Pain Followup - As a followup to a post of mine LINK
to my blog. It seems there is some disagreement about Lobsters
feeling pain.
A Switzerland law went into effect March 1, 2018 that bans the
common cooking method of tossing a live lobster into a big pot
of boiling water, quickly killing the tasty crustacean. That
practice is outlawed because the Swiss say it is cruel and
lobsters can sense pain.
The first national legislation of its kind in the world calls
for a more humane death for lobsters, by “rendering them
unconscious” before plunging them into scalding water. Two
methods are recommended: Electrocution or sedating the lobster
by dipping it into salt water and then thrusting a knife into
its brain.
The new lobster legislation that boils down to a pain-free death
was driven by research, including a study by Queen’s University
in Belfast that found crustaceans are sentient creatures. “These
studies show that lobsters, like other animals, experience pain
and distress,” said Stefan Kunfermann, a spokesman for the
Federal Office of Food Safety and Veterinary Affairs.