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.

  • Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    14 hours ago

    Coming from Halifax, I always gave them a quick knife through head before tossing them in the pot.

    Some folks said that you can also kill them relatively humanely by sticking them in the freezer.

    • pregnantwithrage@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      7 hours ago

      I would say freezing to death is not humane, slow and low (freezing) would suck way more than a quick off switch. Boiling them is just a dick move imo

      • Gladaed@feddit.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        5 hours ago

        Pretty sure that a slowing metabolism in cold water is pretty usual for lobsters.

        We should not humanize animals with very different live cycles. Farming figs is cruel by some measure since the fig wasps live cycle would constitute abhorrent torture by our standards.

        • pregnantwithrage@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          4 hours ago

          I was speculating mostly. Wouldn’t freezing them mean that they are still alive when you boil them and they would suffer even more? I know some creatures are resilient like that so I’m not sure.

          Regardless, I wasn’t trying to humanize them rather looking at what would be the quickest way to dispatch an animal that would be not only efficient but less cruel?

          • Gladaed@feddit.org
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            3 hours ago

            I would expect the metabolism to adjust too slowly, but do not know. You are throwing them into boiling water after all.