A recent study found that boiling lobsters alive can cause them severe pain, reopening the debate about whether this practice should be banned in the UK and several other countries.
The researchers concluded that the Norwegian lobster exhibits behavioral and biological responses that may indicate its ability to sense pain in a way that is more closely related to what was previously thought about crustaceans.
Experiments showed that crustaceans react to painkillers such as lidocaine and aspirin, as these substances reduced their response to harmful electric shocks, which researchers considered a possible indication of a nervous system associated with the sensation of pain.
The research team believes that these results not only indicate simple reflexive responses, but may reflect an actual experience of pain when the animal is harmed.
This controversy comes at a time when the practice of boiling crustaceans alive is already banned in a number of countries, including Norway, New Zealand, Austria and some Australian states.
Professor Lynn Sneddon, an animal behavior expert at the University of Gothenburg and one of the study's participants, said that scientific evidence makes boiling crustaceans alive an inhumane practice, and emphasizes the need to end the lives of animals in more humane ways, similar to what is applied to mammals and birds.
Studies of crustacean behavior show that they react to harmful stimuli in their environment and avoid high temperatures, which raises the question of whether these responses are merely reflexes or evidence of pain sensation.
Researchers distinguish between "pain" as a conscious experience associated with suffering, and "the sensation of pain" as an automatic neural response to damage, a distinction that explains part of the ongoing scientific debate about crustaceans.
In the study, researchers noted that the lobsters tried to escape when subjected to electric shocks, while this behavior decreased significantly when given painkillers, reinforcing the hypothesis that they possess more complex neural mechanisms than previously thought.
The study's lead researcher, Eleftherios Cassioras, said that the crustaceans' response to painkillers during painful experiences suggests that what is happening goes beyond mere involuntary reactions, implying that they are actually capable of sensing pain.
In the same context, animal welfare organizations considered that boiling crustaceans alive causes unnecessary suffering, calling for the adoption of more humane methods of killing such as rapid cutting or electric shock.
However, some researchers believe that imposing a blanket ban may not be practical in all cases, as Professor Henrik Lauridsen points out that the killing of large crustaceans can be easily regulated in a humane way, while it may be difficult to apply this to small species such as shrimp in domestic environments or during recreational fishing.
This scientific and ethical debate leads to an open question about how much suffering society can accept in its dealings with marine organisms.
