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.

  • Avicenna@programming.dev
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    4 hours ago

    Lobsters (probably) don’t understand the concept of other animals feeling pain but we can. Lobsters don’t have any other more merciful methods/tools in their disposal for survival whereas humans do this entirely because “it is more delicious that way”. This is the right context.

    Even the comparison “lesser of two evils” is not in the right context because it becomes more evil to the degree that you understand the other side’s suffering.