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.

      • Corporal_Punishment@feddit.uk
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        3 days ago

        Aww you got me.

        Nothing i like more than gathering up an entire ants nest and forcing them to watch as I torture the queen by sticking pins into her.

        Then when she finally does croak it, I force the other ants into a battle royale.

        When there’s one survivor, I crown him king ant. Then boil him alive and serve him with butter.

          • Corporal_Punishment@feddit.uk
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            3 days ago

            Depends on the method.

            I know what you’re trying to do mate.

            If it turned out that insects felt pain and we were killing them off in the most brutal way possible for no reason then I wouldn’t be happy about it.

            But they don’t, and we aren’t.

            Tell me this. Knowing that lobsters feel pain, that there are humane methods of killing them that are quick and don’t involve them slowly being boiled alive and don’t make any fucking difference to what comes next, why exactly are you trying to defend the practice by painting those of us who don’t agree with it out to be hypocrites?

            Seriously, do you WANT them to suffer? Or are you just being contrarian for the sake of argument.

            • lmmarsano@lemmynsfw.com
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              3 days ago

              But they don’t, and we aren’t.

              You seem awfully sure of that. The jain would disagree with you.

              Sentient means ability to perceive or feel. Bugs respond to stimuli, so that includes them.

              I doubt all insecticides kill quickly with minimal suffering.

              I know what you’re trying to do mate.

              why exactly are you trying to defend the practice

              Am I? I’m mostly ridiculing our folly when we’re inconsistent, but also curious if anyone recognizing the impracticalities still has a consistent answer. Ignoring the problem isn’t an answer.

              by painting those of us who don’t agree with it out to be hypocrites?

              Because you are unless you’re consistent about it. If you have a cool answer to this conundrum, though, I think some of us are eager for it.

              It makes little difference to me, so sure, kill lobsters humanely before cooking them. I’m still going to ridicule inconsistent moralizing.

              I’d been telling everyone the best answer may be to deliver on the earlier designs of the ancient Mesopotamian gods[1] to exterminate all of humanity. We’d been ruining the planet, and the other species deserve better. No one else takes that idea seriously.


              1. until they settled for limiting human lifespans (to a mere 120 years) & introducing infertility, altogether a bad move ↩︎