Lobsters, crabs, and octopuses can feel pain and should not be cooked alive, says new report.
Octopus feel pain and they feel themselves being chopped up and eaten alive. In an article published by Vice they interviewed Jennifer Mather, PhD, an expert in the behaviour of octopus and squid at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta. “It's probable that the octopus's reaction to pain is similar to a vertebrate.
Octopuses can feel pain, just like all animals. Of eating an octopus alive, Dr. Jennifer Mather, an expert on cephalopods and a psychology professor at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada, says the following: “[T]he octopus, which you've been chopping to pieces, is feeling pain every time you do it.
There is a consensus in the field of animal sentience that octopuses are conscious beings — that they can feel pain and actively try to avoid it. Kristin Andrews and Frans de Waal posit in a new report published in the journal Science that many animals, including cephalopods such as octopuses, feel pain .
A report, commissioned by the United Kingdom government, evaluated evidence from 300 studies to conclude that cephalopods — such as octopuses, squid and cuttlefish — and decapods — crabs, lobsters and crayfish — are capable of experiencing pain and, therefore, shouldn't be boiled alive.
While mammals and birds possess the prerequisite neural architecture for phenomenal consciousness, it is concluded that fish lack these essential characteristics and hence do not feel pain.
JONATHAN BIRCH: There's evidence that a lobster will carry on living for two to three minutes when it's dropped into a pan of boiling water and that the nervous system response carries on very intensely during that time, just as it would with you or me or a cat or a dog or any animal dropped into a pan of boiling water ...
The Evolution of Pain
Studies have repeatedly shown that aquatic animals such as fish, lobster, prawns and shrimp do feel pain. Evolution has given animals on earth the ability to feel pain as a means of self-preservation. Humans quickly learn that it hurts to get too near fire, and we therefore avoid doing so.
Research has clearly shown that lobsters, crabs, and other crustaceans can and do experience pain. Scientists have shown that their reaction to painful stimuli is more than just a reflex response and instead, they learn from painful stimuli and change their behavior.
Shortly after a squid's fin is crushed, nociceptors become active not only in the region of the wound but across a large part of its body, extending as far as the opposite fin. This suggests that if it feels pain, rather than being able to pinpoint the location of a wound, an injured squid may hurt all over.
A science-based report from the University of British Columbia to the Canadian Federal Government has been quoted as stating "The cephalopods, including octopus and squid, have a remarkably well developed nervous system and may well be capable of experiencing pain and suffering."
How do you kill an animal like an octopus? Current studies on wild-caught octopus slaughter mention a variety of brutal methods, including clubbing their heads, slicing their brains, asphyxiation in a net, and chilling in ice.
Neurobiologists have long recognized that fish have nervous systems that comprehend and respond to pain. Fish, like “higher vertebrates,” have neurotransmitters such as endorphins that relieve suffering—the only reason for their nervous systems to produce these painkillers is to alleviate pain.
But the octopus, which you've been chopping to pieces, is feeling pain every time you do it. It's just as painful as if it were a hog, a fish, or a rabbit, if you chopped a rabbit's leg off piece by piece. So it's a barbaric thing to do to the animal.
Yes, fish feel pain
A significant body of scientific evidence suggests that yes, fish can feel pain. Their complex nervous systems, as well as how they behave when injured, challenge long-held beliefs that fish can be treated without any real regard for their welfare.
“Fish do feel pain. It's likely different from what humans feel, but it is still a kind of pain.” At the anatomical level, fish have neurons known as nociceptors, which detect potential harm, such as high temperatures, intense pressure, and caustic chemicals.
“Nope! A sound can emit from the shells of the lobsters — a high-pitched sound — but it's due to steam escaping through a fissure in the shell, not the lobsters 'screaming,'” she explained. This doesn't necessarily mean the cooking process is pain-free for the lobster.
Ripping the legs off live crabs and crowding lobsters into seafood market tanks are just two of the many practices that may warrant reassessment, given two new studies that indicate crustaceans feel pain and stress.
Oysters have a small heart and internal organs, but no central nervous system. Lack of a central nervous system makes it unlikely oysters feel pain, one reason some people who otherwise are vegetarians comfortable eating oysters.
It is likely to lack key features such as 'distress', 'sadness', and other states that require the synthesis of emotion, memory and cognition. In other words, insects are unlikely to feel pain as we understand it.
They might sense something, but it is not painful and does not compromise their well-being."
Non-sentient animals would then include sponges, corals, anemones, and hydras. Again, as in the case of plants, these animals may react to external stimuli, and even engage in locomotion.
In 1900 the US passed the Lacey Act. It was a law meant to protect plants and wildlife, which it did. But it also eventually made it a federal crime to boil a live lobster.
Boiling lobsters alive is a way to reduce the risk of food poisoning from bacteria that live in their flesh and that quickly multiply on their carcasses, according to Science Focus. Plus they have been deemed tastier and better presented on the plate when cooked this way.
Contrary to claims made by seafood sellers, lobsters do feel pain, and they suffer immensely when they are cut, broiled, or boiled alive.