Freshwater crayfish are commercially trapped globally for food markets, with capture, transport, and live sale conditions that cause significant welfare harm to animals now understood to be sentient.
Crayfish welfare sits at a scientific frontier — the evidence for their sentience is now sufficient to warrant regulatory attention in several jurisdictions, yet the commercial trapping and processing industries have not adjusted practices accordingly. Crayfish crowded in containers without water, transported in thermal extremes, and boiled alive experience distress that the precautionary principle demands we take seriously. Low-cost improvements — moist storage, temperature management, chilling before killing — are achievable in commercial contexts.