Decapod crustaceans including lobsters and crabs are now covered by UK animal welfare legislation following scientific evidence of their capacity to experience pain.
The evidence for decapod crustacean sentience has accumulated steadily over two decades: they have nociceptors, they learn to avoid damaging stimuli, they show wound guarding, and they prioritize pain avoidance over food rewards in conflict tests. These behavioral and physiological indicators satisfy the criteria used to assess sentience in vertebrate species. Live boiling causes tissue damage progressively over the several minutes it takes for the animal to die. Species-appropriate stunning or rapid destruction of the nerve ganglia represents the welfare-superior killing method.