Boiling lobsters alive to be banned in UK animal cruelty crackdown

That was the conclusion I reached a little while ago. So I've just stopped eating shellfish as a result.

I'm now trying to reduce the amount of cow I eat.

Agreed, and I vaguely remembered something along these lines from my time cooking them, but I also know how many that I was cooking in a day as just a small scale operation at a local fish market cooking and shucking for lobster meat and cooking for the occasional customer to take home with them (I think the most we did in a day was close to one metric ton), and how unfeasible it is to do on a large scale.

I was doing 50 lbs at a time per pot, with 2 large stovetop pots at a time. That's 25+ lobsters per pot, averaging probably about 60 lobsters per hour that I was cooking by myself. Imagining trying to do that at an industrial scale sounds like the kind of thing that would effectively kill lobster meat as anything other than an expensive specialty item.

And although maybe it should kill mass market lobster meat (why in the hell does McDonald's sell lobster rolls in the first place???), I also have a visceral gut reaction to the idea of effectively making a food the exclusive domain of the rich. Especially when my boss at that job would make a big stink about people buying fish with Social Security money like poor people don't deserve to eat anything other than rice and beans.

✂️ this kills the crab

A TV reporter became lost on the back roads and stopped at a farm to get directions. As he was talking to the farmer he noticed a pig with a wooden leg. “This could be a great story for the Six O’Clock News.  How did that pig lose his leg?” he asked the farmer. “Well”, said the farmer, “that’s a very special pig. One night not too long ago we had a fire start in the barn, and that pig squealed so loud and long that he woke everyone, and by the time we got there he had herded all the other animals out of the barn. Saved them all.”

“And that was when he hurt his leg?” asked the journalist anxious for a story.  “Nope, he pulled through that just fine.” said the farmer. “Though a while later, I was back in the woods when a bear attacked me. Well, sir, that pig was nearby and he came running and rammed that bear from behind and then chased him off. He saved me for sure.”

“Wow! So the bear injured his leg then?” questioned the reporter.  “No. He came away without a scratch. Though a few days later, my tractor turned over in a ditch and I was knocked unconscious. Well, that pig dove into the ditch and pulled me out before I got cut up in the machinery.”  “Ahh! So his leg got caught under the tactor?” asked the journalist.  “Noooo. We both walked away from that one.” says the farmer.

“So how did he get the wooden leg?” asked the journalist.  “Well”, the farmer replied, “A pig that good you don't eat all at once!"

So like harvesting claws from stone crabs?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_stone_crab

Roadkill and scavenging exists. It's pretty safe when done responsibly

How useful :p

You are so clever. Pardon me while I cook this bacon.

Correct. Scientists have done studies on vibrations from plants and they have a reaction to being cut and pulled that could be equated to a "pain" response.

In case you didn't know, we are animals.

We should always keep that in mind and stop pretending "being human" is some universal thing.

Cats are neither human, nor do they boil their kills just because they can.

But, we all know they would if they could.

We don't boil lobsters just because we can, but because we cook our food.

I said felines by the way, so cats AND all others too.

Have you ever seen lions hunting their prey and eating it from its ass while it is still trying to run away?

Or playing with their prey before eventually strangling it?

That's their way of doing it, it's gruesome but it's fine.

We have our own ways of doing it too, some methods are even considerably more painless than others.

Also you should note your own use of "humane", that's a key point there. All this talk is just human specist nonsense.

Last but not least, I could even argue (as a human) that it's ridiculous to judge what killing method is acceptable (and even what is acceptable to eat) based on things like pain, or having a nervous system.

FUCK YOU AND YOUR SPECIST CRINGE ARGUMENTS! Killing a human, a lobster, a mosquito or a tomato plant is just killing, no matter what lies you tell yourself.

Yeah but they are masochists and they like it.

Its both here, cooking bacon is the cheapest boneless meat I have ever seen per weight. But you can also get pretty fancy expensive bacon choices too.

what are you talking about. bacon and chicken wings are cheap. almost every other desirable cut of pig/chicken is more expensive. chicken wings are often 1-2 dollars a lb.

Not looking forward to the clamshells.... maybe lobster claws could be a cheap alternative?

I mean you can eat them if you know what I mean

Do plants feel pain?

From what I've read so far, unfortunately, it seems like they might. Plants can communicate with each other and form underground resource networks with other plants, fungi, and microorganisms. Including for illness, boring bugs and pain responses. The smell of fresh cut grass is one of those warning/pain responses.

I've wanted to do some bonsai succulents, but the process towards any living thing seems cruel and painful.

Now this I can agree with.

Just learn to photosynthesize like that guy obviously does

You'll avoid eating carrion and probiotics and fallen fruit and seeds and nuts? Did you simply overlook other possibilities than harming living things?

I'm daunted by the possibility some may fall for that false dichotomy, and not mean it in jest.

Don't have to be a failed breatharian.

Can be fruitarian.

Nah, you starve. You're the one who's into that stuff.

Curious response.

Indifferent, dismissive, in denial, about the suffering of plants? Speciesist? Just never been introduced to plants, be it with plant medicine, or scientific studies? Plants feel. Just because it's not expressed in familiar mammalian ways, does not mean they're not living feeling beings. Seeing chopping down plants and eating them as barbaric is a valid perspective to take. I wonder if you have anything above contradiction on Graham's Hierarchy of Disagreement to make your argument have any compelling substance...? Or if this will just remain as a limbic reflex to preserve self image, without entertaining the idea in curiosity. Come, get curious, not furious. :)

[Edit: Oh wow. Just saw the up/down votes ratio on that "Chopping down plants & eating them is also barbaric." comment. At time of writing, up 8, down 55! Wow. Presumably a lot of other people also kicking off all reflexive in defence of their magnanimous morally-superior identification/self-image (presumably) being vegetarian or whatever. Face the horror, folks. 'Ain't the angels promoted to be in that moral relativism and speciesistical ignorance. LOL. (Cue all the more down votes on this comment, due to this edit clashing with those who'll still double down in wilful ignorance refusing to look into this. Hehehehehe).]

I for one think it's highly appropriate

1800s new England, they were refered to as sea rats, and it was a common clause in servants contracts limiting how many meals a week they could be given lobster.

Anyone with a few bucks and a grocery store nearby that carries them? I am happy to say that this is pretty rare. As a kid in the 90's it felt like every grocery store had live lobsters for sale.

Lobster as Lemmy mascot when?

Not at all would be fine.

Give them a shot of morphine first

Cause you're not cold blooded, or a lobster. So you don't have the same response to it that they do.

PETA expanded on that by declaring all humans to be the wrong kind.

Electrical stunning isn't an option for home chefs. I have heard of chilling but not sure if that is also being banned in the UK or not, given that they would still be alive. And yeah, no idea how reliable someone is going to be in actually killing it and not just rendering it unable to move but still feeling everything.

Even if a perfect knife cut works, how precise do you need to be? The best method would be the one which is pretty easy to do successfully. Also what about other crustaceans?

That was literally a point they made.

You freeze them.

This news is about lobsters, specifically.

But how would it slow their metabolism down? Unless they're just eating non-stop at room temperature, that colder weather is what they're adapted to.

What other unrelated topics do you wish to discuss?

If you really feel like commenting, why not answer my question instead of trying to delfect like a smartass? Can we only focus on your single issue? Is it not possible to do more than one thing at a time in politics?

Lobsters.

Probably. Being electrocuted can range anywhere from insanely painful to death in 0.1 seconds depending on the ampage

What part of "don't torture an animal to death" is it you struggle with?

You sound like one of those disturbed kids that pull legs off of bugs or slowly crush various body parts until it stops moving.

If you're gonna kill something, give it a swift death with minimal suffering. It's really not that complicated.

Lobsters aren't bugs

Humans and other mammals release cortisol as part of the pain response.

So do lobsters.

They feel pain when they are boiled alive.

That alone should be enough information for a sane person to think "huh, if they feel pain maybe I should put in a small amount of effort to make sure they don't suffer when I kill them" instead of trying to justify why it's ok and use thinly veiled insults aimed at those of us who don't think animals suffering from avoidable pain is acceptable.

Disregarding the pain of something just because it doesnt have a cute face or fur is far more evidence of mental illness tbh.

"The fact that a lobster is food does not make it a more elevated being"

And I never said it did. I said the fact that it has an observable and measurable pain response makes it a more elevated being.

Lobsters are sentient, the science has proven it. They might be on the lower end but they have also been shown to demonstrate a limited form of memory and intelligence when it comes to things like pain, avoiding objects that are known to cause it.

I get not caring, but mate, you sound like an absolute psychopath who takes delight in killing them.

You are missing the point dude. Boiling alive is slow torture, they are not sa....

Fuck it good luck with your reading comprehension skills

I also don't waffle about a shoe on a cockroach, in fact I try my best to kill them as fast as possible and in any case will choose a shoe to spray, which takes longer. No point in making anyone or anything squirm in agony over several minutes unless I have a personal vendetta against them.

No, you smash that repugnant shit

Sounds like a very quick way to kill it.

I feel the need to point out that the person you're arguing with is not saying you shouldn't kill lobsters.

Your original comment made it seem as though you were not slicing their pea-brains in half, just boiling them alive (this was cleared up in your follow-up).

Having said that, there may be worse ways to go. In the first season of Shogun they put a guy in a large cauldron of water and slowly brought it up to a boil.

But then I remember that MrBallen story where the guy was pushed into an NYC storm drain and was steamed alive for several minutes in agony. From what I remember, steam isn't like fire where your nerves are essentially cauterized do you can't feel anything. You have to suffer through every minute of it.

Let's just agree to all show each other the courtesy of a knife to the brain.

They prefer animal cruelty in the "I had to do it, so you should too!" kind of way.

Okay, so I have a guy in a chef hat fucking a lobster image in my head. Thanks….

They believe compassion and empathy are "woke"

Nah, people that say this (horseshoe theory etc) are exclusively right wing and are grasping at straws to claim we're just like them.

Which we're not.

I'd even kill Nazis quickly.