Lobsters, Crabs and Octopuses Will Now Receive Welfare Protection as 'Sentient Beings' in the U.K. T

[Judi Lynn]

The report outlines recommendations for best practices to reduce animal cruelty and suffering

Rasha Aridi
Daily Correspondent

November 23, 2021



Researchers looked for eight specific neurological and behavioral criteria that indicate sentience, such as the ability to learn and feel pain. Diego Delso

According to a new report commissioned by the United Kingdom government, animals like lobsters, crabs and octopuses are sentient beings that feel pain, which serves as a step towards protecting the welfare of these species, reports Asha C. Gilbert for USA Today.

Moving forward, these species will be included in the U.K.'s Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill. When passed into law, the bill will establish an Animal Sentience Committee and ensure that the wellbeing of these invertebrates is considered in new laws. The original bill wholly included vertebrates, but left invertebrates out, according to a press release from the U.K. government.

"The science is now clear that [these animals] can feel pain and therefore it is only right they are covered by this vital piece of legislation," Animal Welfare Minister Lord Zac Goldsmith says in the press release.

In the report, experts at the London School of Economics and Political Science reviewed 300 different studies looking for evidence that these critters are sentient. The report concludes that cephalopods—a group of mollusk that includes squids, octopuses and cuttlefish—and decapods—a type of crustacean including crabs, lobsters and shrimp—should be formally recognized and treated as sentient beings, reports Katie Hunt for CNN.

More:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/lobsters-crabs-and-octopuses-will-be-recognized-as-sentient-beings-in-the-uk-warranting-welfare-protections-180979113/

[Haggard Celine]

1. I won't boil them alive anymore.

I've never prepared octopus at home, only eaten it in sushi. But I hope they're slaughtered humanely at the restaurant, if they're still alive when they get there. I'm not going to stop eating seafood or meat, but I do advocate that all animals that are to be eaten are killed in ways that make sure their suffering is minimal. We can do that much.

[abqtommy]

2. Thanks. I totally agree. nt

[Jim__]

3. Consider the Lobster.

In August 2004, David Foster Wallace wrote an essay (included in a book of the same name), Consider the Lobster, that covered the Maine Lobster Festival for Gourmet magazine - the link is to that essay at a columbia.edu site. The essay talked in some detail about the behavior of lobsters and their sensitivity to water temperature and to the pain sensors on the lobster.

There is a brief summary of that essay here. An excerpt from that summary:

In Consider the Lobster David Foster Wallace discusses the morality behind consuming Lobster. He opens this reading by discussing the Maine Lobster Festival where over 25,000 pounds of fresh-caught lobster are consumed each year and continues with Maine’s lobster industry as a whole. Wallace advances by defining the word lobster and points out that lobsters are basically giant sea-insects. He also goes on to explain the history of the lobster, describing how up until the early 1800s lobster was a low class food that was only eaten by the poor and institutionalized and discusses how now a days lobster is seen as a delicacy or even posh. The paper then takes a turn when Wallace begins to question the ethical background of boiling lobsters alive. Wallace brings up many points that are made on both sides of this moral battle, discussing how some say that because a lobster doesn’t have a cerebral cortex it doesn’t feel pain. He then goes on to prove that wrong by discussing how lobsters exhibit preference and graphically paints the picture of what exactly happens when you boil a lobster alive, speaking on the way lobsters attempt to escape the boiling water as you or I would do. For the remainder of this writing Wallace just continues to discuss the ethics behind eating lobster. He ends the paper on a very discomforting note finishing off by just saying that it’s best to stop the public discussion there, pointing out that there are limits to what even interested persons can ask of each other.

[Duppers]

6. Saw that and...

But had stopped eating Lobster 20yrs ago, even tho they were my favorite food.

[jeffreyi]

4. Good.

[Duppers]

5. K & R ...Wow!

My brother supplies all his protein needs from veggie protein powder shakes.

I've been eating shrimp.
I'll now stop.