Growing scientific evidence suggests lobsters and crabs experience pain, raising serious ethical questions about common cooking methods including boiling live animals.
The practice of boiling live lobsters and crabs has been defended on the grounds that crustaceans cannot feel pain, but accumulating scientific evidence undermines this assumption. Lobsters show avoidance learning, stress responses, and wound-directed behaviors consistent with pain experience. Humane slaughter methods including electrostunning are available and should be standard practice.