Boiling lobsters while they are alive and conscious will be banned as part of a government strategy to improve animal welfare in England.
Government ministers say that “live boiling is not an acceptable killing method” for crustaceans and alternative guidance will be published.
The practice is already illegal in Switzerland, Norway and New Zealand. Animal welfare charities say that stunning lobsters with an electric gun or chilling them in cold air or ice before boiling them is more humane.
I had to tactfully shame my mom for this. Asked if she wanted her end to be quick or slow. She didn’t have the capacity to even think of it cause it’s not a possibility. Some folks just don’t really think about others in certain ways.
I mean…this should be framed as an attempt at fixing an urban myth: that lobster tastes best when cooked alive.
I worked in restaurants for years and we always killed them quickly and humanely before we boiled them.
To me this is just low hanging fruit.
The usual way of dispatching a lobster is a knife straight in the centre of the brain and cutting forward. Not sure why anyone would want a lobster to be alive when its actually cooked.
After watching Seaspriacy on Netflix, I stopped eating seafood, with exception to dried seaweed.
I’m all for this but how are they going to enforce it on a consumer level?
i prefer lobsters that were boiled AFTER they become unalive
Good!
With this administration’s track record, I’m half expecting this to turn out to be the justification for putting “lobster-verification” cameras in everyone’s kitchen.
“A bobby at every table and a camera in every pot.”
- Liz Truss or something, idk UK politics
Calling the UK Gov the “administration” sounds off.
Culinary school recommended a quick kitchen knife through the brain immediately before boiling
Is the recommendation the same for other crustaceans?
Instead of boiling them alive, yes.
Lobsters are the one you are going to see alive most, though, as their meat breaks down very quickly after they die. That isn’t true of most other crustaceans, at least not to the same degree
I’ve seen crabs boiled alive, and shellfish like clams and oysters are steamed alive.
With the crabs you can snip them between the eyes for a quick death but I’m not sure what to do for a clam
proof that their flesh is only held together by their immense psychic powers :)
Good. This may seem like a joke now but slowly over decades people will stop doing this.
I do think the next human milestone would be to realize killing animals for sustenance is wrong, and I’m saying that as a meat eater.
I think “decades” sadly is a bit too optimistic
Most people are happy to eat alternatives provided they are as cheap and taste good. The meat industry can be killed by good vegan food.
I reckon culture-grown meat will be the big one that shifts people away from slaughter meat.
Sure, growing it from a culture will still have people refusing on ethics grounds, but it’s damned sight less suffering.
Growing meat from a culture onto a framework will likely result in more consistent, better cuts of meat.
There is no such thing as a good tasting vegan meat replacement. Beyond meat is the closest I’ve seen and even that is a little gross
it’ll be 80 years before this policy reaches Southeast Asia, where they are regularly cutting live frogs in half below the torso with scissors in the markets, tossing all the dying frog torsos together in a big pile. maybe 180 years actually
Why do they cut them that way in particular?
they eat the legs. some folks will cut the head off and some folks will cut down by the torso. the frog will be grabbing at the scissors uselessly. if it bites, they will snip the mouth off. its very quick. grab a frog, snip snip, toss the frog into the pile, repeat. like harvesting a plant
why don’t they all just cut at the head? i have no idea. i think the experience of the animal is simply not considered
I think it’s just the legs that are eaten? Not sure though.
I like this
Just leave these animals to live their lives however they seem fit. Without unnecessary human interference. As we do have that option.
Dont know if you’re only referrung to lobsters or all animals but strictly speaking, humans are also animals and letting everyone live life as they see fit is already the default if you will. That includes letting people who want to cook lobsters do that
I guess you missed the human interference part in my previous message. And no, I am generally not okay with people cooking lobsters. Not only is it presently unnecessary for their survival or health, it harms the animal and the part of nature it has been taken out of. All that for a brief moment of joy, something that tastes good. Just leave these animals be, eat something else, with plant-based ingredients that harm the planet way less.
UK government caring more about lobster welfare than that of trans people.
Maybe time to start identifying as a lobster…
I don’t think you’re allowed to boil trans people alive either
You certainly shouldn’t be eating them
I mean you can eat them if you know what I mean
I have no idea what you mean. Would you be able to provide some study material for me? Perhaps a research paper?
The bad thing is that these goals do not conflict with each other: they could easily do both if they wanted to.
Not just “trans people”.
Just people.
Not the only category suffering their cruelty and indifference.
I’ve survived several rounds of the culls.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvRz8HrEVKY
No fun being dependent on your abuser trying to include you in their democide.
While they are alive and conscious.
That’s why I fill my lobsters with propofol before cooking them. People always say my dinner parties are a snooze. I don’t know why, I always have a good time. Of course, I don’t eat lobster.
It frightens me that we can’t 100% agree that boiling a living thing that feels pain, is bad.
Humans are the worst.
Doesnt the UK eat tons of veal? Seems like if youre gonna pretend to care about animals that would be a prime target but what do I know?
Most killing involves pain, all meat requires killing.
And it should be instant. Not like the extreme polar end of those asian guys skinning a dog while it was still alive for the meat market.
✂️ this kills the crab
Not true.
As at least one commenter said already, meat can be extracted without killing.
And further, you can wait for something to die of natural causes, and then you get the meat.
And now, arguably, “meat” can be made in a lab. Perhaps suppressed secret tech already has star-trek style replicators.
At least 3 distinct ways of meat without killing.
At a stretch… seeds and mushrooms can be considered/called “meat”.
Probably more ways yet I’ve not thought of.
You are so clever. Pardon me while I cook this bacon.
I hope the pig was dead, and you didn’t just gouge a chunk out of its buttocks.
[PS, Ima go run a mile from the idea of me being clever. I don’t wanna become that smugnorant and stupid.]
all meat requires killing.
Technically not true… You could amputate and eat part of an animal without killing it
A TV reporter became lost on the back roads and stopped at a farm to get directions. As he was talking to the farmer he noticed a pig with a wooden leg. “This could be a great story for the Six O’Clock News. How did that pig lose his leg?” he asked the farmer. “Well”, said the farmer, “that’s a very special pig. One night not too long ago we had a fire start in the barn, and that pig squealed so loud and long that he woke everyone, and by the time we got there he had herded all the other animals out of the barn. Saved them all.”
“And that was when he hurt his leg?” asked the journalist anxious for a story. “Nope, he pulled through that just fine.” said the farmer. “Though a while later, I was back in the woods when a bear attacked me. Well, sir, that pig was nearby and he came running and rammed that bear from behind and then chased him off. He saved me for sure.”
“Wow! So the bear injured his leg then?” questioned the reporter. “No. He came away without a scratch. Though a few days later, my tractor turned over in a ditch and I was knocked unconscious. Well, that pig dove into the ditch and pulled me out before I got cut up in the machinery.” “Ahh! So his leg got caught under the tactor?” asked the journalist. “Noooo. We both walked away from that one.” says the farmer.
“So how did he get the wooden leg?” asked the journalist. “Well”, the farmer replied, “A pig that good you don’t eat all at once!"
So like harvesting claws from stone crabs?
How useful :p
Can you eat starfish?
Yes, you can.
all plant eating is killing too
Correct. Scientists have done studies on vibrations from plants and they have a reaction to being cut and pulled that could be equated to a “pain” response.
Let’s suppose that you actually genuinely care about reducing the amount of plant suffering in the world. If this is the case, surely you would be vegan, because 3/4 of our total agricultural land is used to grow plants to support animal agriculture. (Since grass feels pain just like soybeans do, this includes pasture land.) So far fewer plants would be killed if everyone was vegan.
Of course, you don’t actually live your life in a manner consistent with believing plants feel pain. I don’t think anyone would think twice about swerving into some flowers to avoid a dog in the street for fear of causing suffering to the flowers.
Do you have any idea how many animals and bugs suffer at the hands of your monocultures in to produce soybeans and tofu? They destroy the habitat, poison the ground and the water, and make it impossible for most things to live on vast tracks of land. They interrupt migration patterns of larger animals.
You guys must all be small scale organic farmers like me! Surely if you cared about all life so much, you would be doing more of your personal space to accommodate? Shall we analyze your diet Friend? Let us discuss what you were eating and how you are acquiring it.
Cmon let’s be real, again this is a very simple trophic levels thing. If you truly care about the suffering of all the field mice and bugs and whatever being killed in soybean monocultures, and their other various environmental harms, then surely you would be vegan, because 75% of all soybeans grown globally are used as animal feed. (Source)
If you truly care about the suffering of all the field mice and bugs
they’re saying they don’t and neither does anyone else. it’s a silly concern: animals die, and humans eat animals.
a soybean is about 20% oil. about 85% of all soybeans are pressed for oil, that leaves about 69% of the total soybean crop as industrial waste if it’s not fed to animals. another 7% is fed directly to livestock. only 7% of all soybeans are grown for animals.
far fewer plants would be killed if everyone was vegan.
I doubt this
That’s ok, totally understandable. Just read the comment again
still not convinced
How so? Have you seen the energy pyramid diagram?
The one I am referring to is specifically figure 2
much of what animals eat are parts of plants people can’t or won’t eat. I don’t actually believe any fewer plants would be harmed if people were vegan.
You’re talking to vegans not biologists or ecologists. They don’t have any idea how their food is grown, or what the ecosystem it’s grown in can support.
I’ll share your downvotes o7
LOL-Ouch!
Reading this
It frightens me that we can’t 100% agree that boiling a living thing that feels pain, is bad.
Humans are the worst.
the very next thing after having just finished writing:
provided that you didn’t consider humans animals
And it’s daunting how many people are in a popularised fervour of seeing their misanthropy as a virtue, unwitting of the historical company they keep; unwitting of the totalitarianising psyche they have more than a toe in with that shit. Nor how dangerous and wrong and deluding that is. Horrors, even the worst horrors, propped up with fallacies in service of inverting reality, making atrocities seen as necessary virtues. Especially the animals=good people=bad crowd.
The worst, eh?
Maybe study more nature before throwing around such dangerous hyperbole.
Have you ever seen felines hunting? They are fucking psychos by your standards.
Judging ourselves by what animals do is a wild take. I guess we’ve just all broadly stopped caring about being human sometime around when “alpha males” became a serious topic of discussion in human behavior.
In case you didn’t know, we are animals.
We should always keep that in mind and stop pretending “being human” is some universal thing.
I’ve heard a lot of the world’s worst people use that as an excuse to do the most horrible things, and I despair that so many people readily embrace it as a validation.
We are animals but we are different than every other animal, and we can be better and do better, and if holding yourself to a higher standard because you were born with sapience is too inconvenient, I’m sure there are some political and ideological groups out there who would love to have you.
edit: I regret spending any time responding to the obvious trolls in this post. Block and move on people. If you ever find yourself having to argue that we’re better than animals, you’re not arguing with someone participating in good faith.
LOL so being against your perspective means validating the worst of humanity? Wow! Such arrogance…
We can “do better” from our own perspective. We are “sapient” from our own perspective.
I’m sure there are also a lot of groups of disgusting people you could fit, but how is that relevant? Is it just that you lack arguments and you resort to insulting a person that you don’t know? Is this what you call being “born with sapience”?
What a petty animal you are…
You sound insufferable
😎
I don’t engage with kids trying to troll, get lost.
Stay safe in your bubble.
To be very crass, animals also rape other animals, and I hope to god that you will not use “but we are animals” as an argument there as well.
We are different from other animals in that we are moral agents. We can know the difference between good and bad. That makes us responsible to act upon that difference, too.
You think very lowly of other animals if you think they have no morals, or no discerning of good and bad.
Or are you valuing your specific moral more than theirs? Because that’s a very classic specist reasoning, with no basis whatsoever except human arrogance.
Also, humans rape other humans too, so how do you justify this? Are rapists not moral agents? You consider them beasts, different animals than yourself?
Then what makes a human a human, what makes them the moral agent you talk about? Is it the respect of the law? Is it a particular neurological state?
More importantly, do you really need this sort of validation to be “good”? Do you need to believe that you are different? That you have a responsibility? That you are “better” than other animals?
Are you not capable of being equally “good” even knowing that morals are relative? That there is no actual universal good? That you have nothing more than other animals?
They get a free pass because they are cute.
Have you ever seen felines hunting?
Devastating scenes. CW: I’m going to eat you little fishy
Cats are neither human, nor do they boil their kills just because they can. Cats kill, yes. Cats are murderous little fuckers, yes.
However the issue the above poster is talking about isn’t about killing of whatever. Or about eating meat. Their point was about doing it in as humane a way as possible.
Cats are neither human, nor do they boil their kills just because they can.
But, we all know they would if they could.
We don’t boil lobsters just because we can, but because we cook our food.
I said felines by the way, so cats AND all others too.
Have you ever seen lions hunting their prey and eating it from its ass while it is still trying to run away?
Or playing with their prey before eventually strangling it?
That’s their way of doing it, it’s gruesome but it’s fine.
We have our own ways of doing it too, some methods are even considerably more painless than others.
Also you should note your own use of “humane”, that’s a key point there. All this talk is just human specist nonsense.
Last but not least, I could even argue (as a human) that it’s ridiculous to judge what killing method is acceptable (and even what is acceptable to eat) based on things like pain, or having a nervous system.
FUCK YOU AND YOUR SPECIST CRINGE ARGUMENTS! Killing a human, a lobster, a mosquito or a tomato plant is just killing, no matter what lies you tell yourself.
There’s some kind of wisdom and (albeit self-serving) kindness to how felines kill things (sometimes). Whereby they get their prey to settle into their fate, and calm down, before they go in for the kill. Seemingly because all that adrenaline and muscle tension makes the meat taste worse, and impairs their mood and feels after eating it.
Haha, all those words that I didn’t read…and yet I still know they all amount to “I’m an angry tool”.
No worries, I understand that it’s too much text to process for some individuals.
Fuck. What hope is there for my verbose replies then…
Curse the twittification tiktokification of our minds.
Yeah, it’s deffo that. And it’s definitely not that you are an angry tool that posts rants about shit that’s got nothing to do with boiling lobsters, haha.
Yeah, it’s deffo that. And it’s definitely not that you are an angry tool that posts rants about shit that I don’t understand, haha.
FIFY
Yeah. I kinda like meat, but seriously. At least make it quick and/or painless, not torture.
which animal can 100% agree with you on that? maybe crabs but even then maybe not
pain isn’t bad.
you are projecting your fear of pain onto other animals.
also you are implying animals that kill and ate other animals, are bad. there is no morality outside of human societies
Since you point out that there is (allegedly) morality in human societies, let’s try to act on it, no?
Yes, and we humans clearly live outside of human societies and thus we shouldn’t hold ourselves to human moral standards.
It’s cute how we set ourselves apart from nature, and use terms like “humane” to mean better, refined, less brutal, yet the moment that notion might even slightly inconvenience us, then we’re just animals.
Humanity? Pfft, fuck that! We’re just animals. We’re like cats, or dolphins!
Removed by mod
Removed by mod
Imagine how vegans must feel about the world lol
Vegans don’t care about the natural world with regards to suffering caused by the natural world itself. That’s just how things are.
Vegans instead are more interested in suffering caused by humans inflicted on the natural world. This suffering can be more or less wicked than what you’d find out in the wild.
Big distinction.
Pretty poorly, all things considered.
Inb4 plants feel just as much pain, just differently
Yeah but they are masochists and they like it.
Time to chew rocks
In that moral framework ig fruits and veggies would be fine since the plant wants us to eat it
there is no proof plants want anything
Pretty sure we’re supposed to surgically extract the seeds after anaesthetizing the fruits whilst it’s still on the tree.
I don’t know much about it but Jains in India actually have rules about causing minimal harm to all living things
You monster!
