Scientists call for humane ways to cook crabs as shellfish found to both experience and react to pain

[editor]

Or, even better, don't eat them at all.

Researchers from the University of Gothenburg are the first to prove that painful stimuli are sent to the brain of shore crabs providing more evidence for pain in crustaceans. EEG style measurements show clear neural reactions in the crustacean's brain during mechanical or chemical stimulation.

In the search for a better welfare of animals that we humans kill for food, researchers at the University of Gothenburg have chosen to focus on decapod crustaceans. This includes shellfish delicacies such as prawns, lobsters, crabs and crayfish that we both catch wild and farm. Currently, shellfish are not covered by animal welfare legislation in EU, but this might be about to change. For a good reason, according to researchers.

“We need to find less painful ways to kill shellfish if we are to continue eating them. Because now we have scientific evidence that they both experience and react to pain,” says Lynne Sneddon, zoophysiologist at the University of Gothenburg

Brain test shows that crabs process pain

Researchers from the University of Gothenburg are the first to prove that painful stimuli are sent to the brain of shore crabs providing more evidence for pain in crustaceans. EEG style measurements show clear neural reactions in the crustacean's brain during mechanical or chemical stimulation.

www.gu.se

 

[cesare]

Poor crabs

 

[Spymaster]

I think this has been known for a while. Certainly it has with regards to lobsters , where usual advice nowadays is to either freeze them, or stab them in the head before boiling.

 

[NoXion]

I think this has been known for a while. Certainly it has with regards to lobsters , where usual advice nowadays is to either freeze them, or stab them in the head before boiling.

Yeah, I thought the freezing thing was standard with lobsters. There's a meme that went around ages back about using poultry shears to kill crabs before preparing them. Not sure about freezing, but snipping off the brain with a sharp implement is quick.

 

[bellaozzydog]

My gentle trajectory away from eating/harming any sentient beings continues onwards (it has a long road ahead still and I’m somewhat slapdash about it…but )

My mate a life long pescatarian seems more than happy hoiking lobsters and crabs out of holes followed by dropping them in a boiling pot and still catches fish without humanely (quickly) dispatching them.

I know nature is red in tooth and claw, but we don’t really need to add to the misery

 

[Spymaster]

My mate a life long pescatarian seems more than happy hoiking lobsters and crabs out of holes followed by dropping them in a boiling pot and still catches fish without humanely (quickly) dispatching them.

I think most people do; or at least turn a blind eye to it when ordering in restaurants.

I'm with the majority on it. I don't want to hurt anything unduly but recognise that a degree of discomfort/pain is going to be caused to animals if I want to eat them. I'm ok with that but will minimise it as much as possible until it causes me too much inconvenience.

 

[Fruitloop]

Random aside but I worked in a vet surgery once and there was a vet nurse who had applied to vet school, got through all the tests and was just at the chat bit at the end when they asked if she had any funny stories, and she told this one about trying to euthanize a pet turtle. Tried freezing, halothane, everything under the sun and the thing (despite being at death's door anyway, which is why they were doing it in the first place) just would not die. So finally after running out of ideas they got out the garden shears and gave it the French revolution treatment.

Cue an interminable horrifed silence, a rejection from the vet school and another year as a veterinary nurse. I think she reapplied and I reckon she skipped the die-hard turtle anecdote the second time.