Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Can lobsters feel pain?

Here's one of the age old debates. As a child, I always remember being horrified by drunken prawns. It seemed to me that they must feel pain. It also made me wonder about lobsters and crabs being boiled as I grew older - and it seems that they can feel pain.

8 comments:

yskat said...

I suspect most people who eat drunken prawns and lobsters-boiled-alive know that the animals suffer greatly, but do not empathise with such suffering. There may be some kind of group dynamics involved, as these dishes are usually served in feasts of some kind.

Anonymous said...

i thought all living things feel pain, don't they. I remembered i read somewhere that trees felt it too.. Now, I wonder about the grass we tread on ...

Dawn said...

yskat - I think some people thought that their nervous systems might be too elementary to 'feel' pain.

Anonymous - I think the difference may be in the nervous systems. Trees and grass don't have nervous systems apparently.

Singapore Community Cats said...

Plants do not have a brains to perceive pain. Lobsters have...fishes have..

Anonymous said...

I read that the most humane way to kill a cold blooded animal is to put it in the freezer. I have no idea how true it is. I find it disturbing when people stick chopsticks down the maw of crabs to kill them. It brings to mind grotesque images of certain horror movies.

Plants don't have nervous systems or even rudimentary brains. The scientific consensus is that consciousness cannot exist without a brain, hence neither can the perception of pain. Of course if you believe in spirituality and stuff you are entitled to disagree...

Anonymous said...

Reminds me of David Foster Wallace's Consider the Lobster.
http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/2000s/2004/08/consider_the_lobster

Dawn said...

I was just looking at that on a website today - love his writing :) Didn't realise it was for a Gourmet article.

apple said...

Of course ,every living thing feels pain!!!!!The ppl who r doin these evil acts,just don't have a conscience,they r plain cruel!!
eSP E JAPANESE WHO ALSO CUT OPEN ALL THESE FISHES ,LOBSTERS,PRAWNS,crabs etc alive.Best is to knock them unconscious first before slicin em up.Freezin,boilin is a very cruel way of dying!!!!Or kill em by electrocuting ,which is fast(i think),not slowly torturin them.Ppl r jus plain evil!