Do you believe that shellfish feel pain?

[QuestionableMouse]

Just been talking to my mum on the phone and we got to talking about stuff from childhood including our seaside trips. She used to buy two or three live crabs and boil them when we got home.

I was always horrified by it as a child and thought it was horrible. I'm still uncomfortable with the idea as an adult.

It seems that it's recommended to kill crabs/lobsters now before cooking.

@Sparklingbrook I think the most common practice for chickens these days is gassing them to death.

Boiling them alive is the quickest and most humane way to do it.

I always find it astonishing that posters come into threads and spout absolute bollocks with total confidence! How does it never occur to you to actually check??

No, a knife in the main nerve/brain stem or electro-stunning is more humane @Whatiswrongwithmyface

@QuestionableMouse It's not really a case of belief but if evidence, and the evidence is pretty clear boiling is inhumane and painful
https://www.crustaceancompassion.org.uk

Yes, in my opinion they can feel pain. There isn’t a complete scientific consensus about it, but I think there is as much evidence that lobsters can feel pain as there is that mammals can feel pain. This is a good article about the debate:

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/11/is-it-wrong-to-boil-lobsters-alive

Brilliant @CovidicusRex.

Boiling them alive is the quickest and most humane way to do it. Unless you want to stab them first before you drop them in the water

Having seen a chef try to stab a crab repeatedly, and watch the poor thing react to the pain, because he couldn’t hit the right bit to kill it I thought that was worse. Although ive also seen a lobster try to get out of boiling water for a few seconds before death. Horrible. But then it also must be horrible for any animal going to slaughter.

There's a difference between bivalves and crustaceans like lobsters in terms of central nervous system. It's inconclusive for some but it seems to be known that crabs etc do suffer. I don't think boiling them alive is very pleasant anyway!
I will, however, share this song about it:

How is this a question, of course they feel pain its scientifically proven! Not only pain but more than that, they are incredible. Lobsters live 100 years naturally and mate for life.

I won't eat crab or lobster, or anything that's boiled alive! It's horrendous.

Yes, they do feel pain. Yes, boiling them alive is exceptionally cruel, so are all the other forms of killing though.

A lobster has 100,000 brain cells.

A person has 86,000,000,000 brain cells.

That gives me confidence that a lobster does not feel the way I do, even if I don’t actually know how it feels.

Anything that is alive, had the ability to feel pain.

There's no humane way of killing someone who doesn't want to die. It's not euthanasia.

@Isawamagpie well no, you have to have a nervous system to feel stuff so lot all living things feel pain.

I should have said nerve cells, rather than brain cells.

The tables are too big for my phone screen!

I always understood you should place them in the freezer first as that effectively puts them into a trance like state

Is there a theory that they feel pain but they don’t feel cold?

I always understood you should place them in the freezer first as that effectively puts them into a trance like state

Nope it simply causes potentially painful freezing of their cells just like any other animal and rendersthem unable to move by dropping their body temperature to a level where their metabolism is impaired

And does the same theory state that they don’t feel pain when they’re in a “trance-like state?”

There's no humane way of killing someone who doesn't want to die. It's not euthanasia
True

And does the same theory state that they don’t feel pain when they’re in a “trance-like state?”
They aren't in a trance like state, they're chilled ectotherms and this physiologically unable to move. However their sensory perception remains intact

@rosiejaune

I don't strictly agree with that. I've seen deer culled and they were dead before they hit the ground. Ditto a couple of injured horses who were shot. Ditto dead instantly.

I do like crab, I'm hungry now

As far as we know, only vertebrates have the ability to feel pain.

It's why there are far more stringent ethics on using animals such as zebrafish in animal testing, rather than something like fruit flies

I couldn't imagine ever picking one out of a tank for me to then eat.

I don't think you understand the point, QuestionableMouse. It isn't about whether they are aware of what is happening or not, and therefore distressed by it.

But if you murder someone, you cannot call it humane, because it is inherently inhumane to kill someone who wants to live, regardless of how you do it.