Switzerland Bans Boiling Conscious Lobsters Alive
Switzerland has taken a small but powerful step towards stronger animal-protection laws by outlawing the cruel practice of boiling lobsters alive. As of 1 March, it’ll be illegal to kill lobsters without first stunning them – either by electric shock or the “mechanical destruction” of the brain.
Lobsters are sentient beings, and in an official report presented to the European Commission, a panel of scientific experts agreed beyond doubt that they can suffer and feel pain – just as dogs, cats, pigs, and humans can. Boiling them alive has even been described as “unnecessary torture” by a researcher in Science journal, and lobsters who endure this cruel fate have been known to writhe wildly and scrape at the sides of the pot in a desperate attempt to escape from the scalding-hot water.
This ruling is a step in the right direction, but killing lobsters by any method in order to eat them is cruel and unnecessary. Rather than pulling these animals from their ocean homes, transporting them vast distances, and violently taking their lives, we could simply leave them alone and choose to eat something else.
What You Can Do
Here in the UK, live lobsters are being sold on Amazon. These helpless animals are cruelly packaged and delivered by post as if they were nothing more than a parcel of socks. Please contact Amazon now and ask the company to remove lobsters and other live animals from its store.
