Crabs are increasingly farmed and captured at scale, with emerging welfare science informing better handling and slaughter practices.
Crab welfare sits at the intersection of advancing sentience science and largely unchanged commercial practice. The 2022 UK legislative recognition of decapod crustacean sentience represents a significant policy milestone, though regulatory implementation of welfare standards following from this recognition has been slow. Commercial crab handling — live transport in ice, extended periods without water, boiling alive — would be prohibited for vertebrates under basic animal welfare law. The emerging evidence that crabs can learn to avoid previously painful stimuli, show protective behaviour toward injured limbs, and mount physiological stress responses to noxious stimuli provides the scientific justification for precautionary welfare consideration that is now reflected in UK law. Practical welfare improvements — rapid killing methods, improved transport conditions, temperature management — are feasible and represent the next regulatory and industry challenge.