Welfare considerations for farmed and wild-caught crabs in light of growing evidence for decapod sentience and the scale of the global crab industry.
Crab welfare is at a transitional point where scientific evidence and regulatory recognition are catching up with traditional industry practices that paid no attention to welfare. The methods most commonly used for killing crabs — boiling alive, live splitting, and prolonged chilling — cause suffering based on the behavioral and physiological evidence now available. The RSPCA and other welfare organizations have developed guidance on humane crab killing, including spiking methods that destroy the key ganglia rapidly. While wild-caught crab welfare from fishing practices is difficult to address systematically, processing welfare and live storage conditions are more tractable. Consumer awareness of crab sentience and demand for humanely killed products can drive industry change.