Freshwater crayfish are farmed in large quantities, particularly red swamp crayfish. Their welfare is receiving increasing attention as evidence for crustacean sentience grows.
Crayfish welfare occupies a position between the near-certainty of fish sentience and the lower probability of bivalve sentience. Research on crayfish shows behavioral evidence of pain experience: avoidance learning, wound guarding, and anxiety-like states that respond to anxiolytic drugs. The Birch Review, which extended precautionary welfare consideration to decapod crustaceans, explicitly includes crayfish. Current farming practices — including live boiling and transport in low-water conditions — cause potential suffering if crayfish are sentient. The scale of crayfish production (hundreds of millions of individuals annually) means welfare improvements would affect an enormous number of animals. Consumer and regulatory pressure has begun to create change for lobsters in some jurisdictions; extending this attention to the much larger crayfish production sector is a logical next step.