Scientists have called for an immediate ban on boiling lobsters alive – because they confirm that shellfish can feel pain.
Since 2021, the British government has acknowledged that shellfish are conscious beings.
So far, however, it has refused to implement an outright prohibition to cook them alive.
Now a group of scientists, lawyers and charity institutions, including the RSPCA, call on the government to 'urgently' change its policy.
In an open letter that was sent to the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) this morning and exclusively shared with mailonline, they claim that boiling lobsters and scratches that must be alive must be made illegal.
The Animal Law Foundation adds that it will even 'explore legal action' against the government in the event that widespread murder passes through cooking.
Scientists say that cooking undoubtedly scratches and lobsters causes unbearable pain for a few minutes before they ultimately lose consciousness.
Professor Lynne Sneddon, a leading expert in the field of crustacean perception of the University of Gothenburg and signing the letter, MailOnline said: 'You would not place a living cow or chicken in a barrel of boiling water.
“So it's time to apply the same rules that we give to mammals and birds to other conscious animals.”
A group of scientists, lawyers and charities calls on the government to prohibit urgent boiling lobsters and crabs to live in the midst of clear evidence that they can feel pain (file photo)
The most important argument of the open letter is that cooking live Decapod – School animals – a group of animals, including crabs and lobsters, is already illegal according to British legislation.
In particular, the authors point out the well -being of animals at the time of the dead (England) regulations 2015 (Watok) and the Animal Welfare (Sentience) ACT 2022, also known as the Sentience Act.
Watok makes an offense to kill or control an invertebrate animal in a way that causes 'some avoidable pain, need or suffering from that animal'.
In the meantime, the Sentience Act specifically states that 'lobsters, octopus and crabs and all other decapod scales' are conscious beings.
Yet the current position of Defra is that there are no restrictions on how shellfish should be killed, even though they are conscious invertebrates.
In their open letter, the Animal Law Foundation argues that the law of the Sentience Act clearly implies that lobsters and scratches should be protected under Watok.
That would make cooking a crab or lobster alive illegal, if it could be demonstrated that this caused them 'some avoidable pain'.
And, as the letter states, there is now a growing number of scientific evidence that proves that shellfish have complex mental lives, including pain perception.
Assembly scientific evidence suggests that lobsters are conscious animals that may be experienced. In an open letter sent to the government, scientists claim that this is a good reason to make them alive illegally
Professor Sneddon says: 'There are a number of published scientific studies that show that decapod -shellfish can form relationships within and between species, they can learn and remember tasks such as navigating by masts, and that they can make decisions based on costs and benefits of all the situation. “
In addition, in her own research, Professor Sneddon showed painful stimuli, including pressure and chemical burns, actually being incorporated into the brains of scratching.
In our body, and in the bodies of many other animals, specialized receptors called nociceptors detect damage and send signals to the central nervous system that are interpreted as pain.
The fact that nociceptors firing when a painful stimulus is applied is an important indication that an animal feels pain, just like humans.
The fact that crab nociceptors send signals to the brain is therefore extremely strong evidence that crabs and lobsters feel pain and process instead of just responding to stimuli.
In mammals, our nocioceeptors begin to produce a pain response at 40 ° C (104 ° C), while studies suggest that the pain receptors of fish are starting to shoot at only 29 ° C (84 ° F).
Similarly, cooking takes a long time to kill a crab or lobster, with some studies that suggest that their hearts will continue to beat for more than two minutes during the process.
This makes it very likely that scratching and lobsters would experience pain while being cooked.
Researchers registered the brain activity of paralyzed scratching while they were subjected to painful stimulation of acid and physical probes. They discovered that these tissues contain pain receptors who sent messages to the brain when they are stimulated
Eleftherios Kaisouras, co-author of the newspaper and signer to the letter, MailOnline told: 'When it comes to scratching and lobsters that experience pain when they are cooked alive, in my opinion: yes.
“It takes some time before the animals are made unconscious, so until then they can experience pain when they are cooked alive.”
In addition, the government's decision to include Decapod shellfish on the list of conscious beings inspired by the findings of an assessment of 2021 of scientists at the London School of Economics.
This extensive report concluded: “We have a lot of confidence that live cooking (without prior amazing) is an inhuman slaughter method for relatively large decapods, which can take more than 2 minutes to die.”
Professor Sneddon says: 'The United Kingdom acknowledges Decapod shellfish as a consciousness and as such that they are able to suffer, but they have not been added to the animal welfare law or scientific legislation.
“Science has spoken and it is time to treat Decapod -Scrolling animals as conscious beings and I believe that the letter will stimulate improved treatment of these animals by banning alive cooking.”
Based on these important research documents, the open letter argues that it is not acceptable to Decapod shellfish to be exempt from the protection offered to other conscious animals under Watok.
Ilinca Tuveen, Legal Case Worker at the Animal Law Foundation, says: 'The law is clear, animals including scratching and lobsters must be saved at the time of killing, science is clear that this cannot be met by these animals alive to cook.
This graph shows the peak in brain activity produced when acetic acid was applied to the leg of a coastal crab. The red vertical line shows the moment when the acid was applied. This peak in activity is considered very strong proof that scratching and other tetrapod shellfish can feel pain
“The government must take its regulatory responsibilities seriously and prevent widespread illegality by the industry.”
The Animal Law Foundation also states that public support is now on the side of a ban.
A recent Poll from Yougov showed that 61 percent of the British public surveyed already think it is unacceptable to cook Decapod shellfish by cooking them alive.
But this rises to 78 percent of the British when they are asked to consider whether scratching and lobsters can feel pain during the process.
Signatories of the open letter include leading charities such as Animal Aid, Four Paws UK, the RSPCA and World Animal Protection.
They are accompanied by a number of leading scientists and legal experts, as well as celebrities such as Sarah-Jane Honeywell and TV presenters Wendy and Anthea Turner.
The letter calls on the government to introduce legislation that would make it a violation to cook a decoupling shellfish alive in a commercial environment or at home.
Instead, people would be obliged to use the more humane spiking or entire body splitting method for scratching and lobsters respectively that have been shown to kill in less than 10 seconds.
Although she acknowledges that they are aware, the British government does not revive commercial fishermen, restaurants or home chefs to kill scratching and lobsters in a humane way. This open letter calls for an immediate change to the law (file photo)
In the meantime, commercial operations could be allowed to use specialized electrocution devices that kill the animal quickly after they initially stunning it.
The open letter concludes: 'The Animal Law Foundation and the undersigned call on Defra to revise its position with regard to the well -being of shellfish at the time of killing and to acknowledge that the life of these animals cannot be reconciled with the law .
“The time to end this inhuman practice has long been too late and we call on the government to deal with this issue decisively.”
Defra is contacted for comment.
