Boiling lobsters while they are alive and conscious will be banned as part of a government strategy to improve animal welfare in England.

Government ministers say that “live boiling is not an acceptable killing method” for crustaceans and alternative guidance will be published.

The practice is already illegal in Switzerland, Norway and New Zealand. Animal welfare charities say that stunning lobsters with an electric gun or chilling them in cold air or ice before boiling them is more humane.

  • Drahngis@feddit.dk
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    13 hours ago

    It frightens me that we can’t 100% agree that boiling a living thing that feels pain, is bad.

    Humans are the worst.

      • BCsven@lemmy.ca
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        3 hours ago

        And it should be instant. Not like the extreme polar end of those asian guys skinning a dog while it was still alive for the meat market.

      • thebustinater@lemmy.zip
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        7 hours ago

        all meat requires killing.

        Technically not true… You could amputate and eat part of an animal without killing it

        • KiloGex@lemmy.world
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          8 hours ago

          Correct. Scientists have done studies on vibrations from plants and they have a reaction to being cut and pulled that could be equated to a “pain” response.

          • Spacenut@lemmy.world
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            7 hours ago

            Let’s suppose that you actually genuinely care about reducing the amount of plant suffering in the world. If this is the case, surely you would be vegan, because 3/4 of our total agricultural land is used to grow plants to support animal agriculture. (Since grass feels pain just like soybeans do, this includes pasture land.) So far fewer plants would be killed if everyone was vegan.

            Of course, you don’t actually live your life in a manner consistent with believing plants feel pain. I don’t think anyone would think twice about swerving into some flowers to avoid a dog in the street for fear of causing suffering to the flowers.

    • Kami@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      12 hours ago

      Have you ever seen felines hunting? They are fucking psychos by your standards.

      • ameancow@lemmy.world
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        7 hours ago

        Judging ourselves by what animals do is a wild take. I guess we’ve just all broadly stopped caring about being human sometime around when “alpha males” became a serious topic of discussion in human behavior.

        • Kami@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          7 hours ago

          In case you didn’t know, we are animals.

          We should always keep that in mind and stop pretending “being human” is some universal thing.

          • ameancow@lemmy.world
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            14 minutes ago

            I’ve heard a lot of the world’s worst people use that as an excuse to do the most horrible things, and I despair that so many people readily embrace it as a validation.

            We are animals but we are different than every other animal, and we can be better and do better, and if holding yourself to a higher standard because you were born with sapience is too inconvenient, I’m sure there are some political and ideological groups out there who would love to have you.

            edit: I regret spending any time responding to the obvious trolls in this post. Block and move on people. If you ever find yourself having to argue that we’re better than animals, you’re not arguing with someone participating in good faith.

            • Kami@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              6 hours ago

              LOL so being against your perspective means validating the worst of humanity? Wow! Such arrogance…

              We can “do better” from our own perspective. We are “sapient” from our own perspective.

              I’m sure there are also a lot of groups of disgusting people you could fit, but how is that relevant? Is it just that you lack arguments and you resort to insulting a person that you don’t know? Is this what you call being “born with sapience”?

              What a petty animal you are…

              • SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                37 minutes ago

                To be very crass, animals also rape other animals, and I hope to god that you will not use “but we are animals” as an argument there as well.

                We are different from other animals in that we are moral agents. We can know the difference between good and bad. That makes us responsible to act upon that difference, too.

      • D_C@sh.itjust.works
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        8 hours ago

        Cats are neither human, nor do they boil their kills just because they can. Cats kill, yes. Cats are murderous little fuckers, yes.

        However the issue the above poster is talking about isn’t about killing of whatever. Or about eating meat. Their point was about doing it in as humane a way as possible.

        • KiloGex@lemmy.world
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          8 hours ago

          We don’t boil lobsters just because we can, but because we cook our food.

        • Kami@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          8 hours ago

          I said felines by the way, so cats AND all others too.

          Have you ever seen lions hunting their prey and eating it from its ass while it is still trying to run away?

          Or playing with their prey before eventually strangling it?

          That’s their way of doing it, it’s gruesome but it’s fine.

          We have our own ways of doing it too, some methods are even considerably more painless than others.

          Also you should note your own use of “humane”, that’s a key point there. All this talk is just human specist nonsense.

          Last but not least, I could even argue (as a human) that it’s ridiculous to judge what killing method is acceptable (and even what is acceptable to eat) based on things like pain, or having a nervous system.

          FUCK YOU AND YOUR SPECIST CRINGE ARGUMENTS! Killing a human, a lobster, a mosquito or a tomato plant is just killing, no matter what lies you tell yourself.

          • D_C@sh.itjust.works
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            3 hours ago

            Haha, all those words that I didn’t read…and yet I still know they all amount to “I’m an angry tool”.

            • Kami@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              2 hours ago

              No worries, I understand that it’s too much text to process for some individuals.

              • D_C@sh.itjust.works
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                2 hours ago

                Yeah, it’s deffo that. And it’s definitely not that you are an angry tool that posts rants about shit that’s got nothing to do with boiling lobsters, haha.

    • cley_faye@lemmy.world
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      12 hours ago

      Yeah. I kinda like meat, but seriously. At least make it quick and/or painless, not torture.

    • TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      pain isn’t bad.

      you are projecting your fear of pain onto other animals.

      also you are implying animals that kill and ate other animals, are bad. there is no morality outside of human societies

      • ameancow@lemmy.world
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        36 minutes ago

        pain isn’t bad.

        Pain is universally bad you fucking psycho, all sentient creatures have “experience” of some kind and pain and suffering is a tool meant to make things avoid harm so it’s more than reasonable to assume that other creatures experience it. In fact, you don’t need to assume, we’ve FUCKING STUDIED IT. Have you? have you done ANY research yourself to base this schizoid take on? We are a higher creature with greater awareness and have some measure of responsibility to reduce suffering in the world.

        Your argument can be extended to dogs and cats and babies. Which was an actual argument back in the day and they performed surgery on infants without anesthesia because “they didn’t have a concept of pain” according to people who cited vibes and an avoidance of inconvenience.

        edit: saw your moderation history, I regret spending even a moment replying to you. At least I’ll never see another comment of yours.

      • Leon@pawb.social
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        7 hours ago

        Yes, and we humans clearly live outside of human societies and thus we shouldn’t hold ourselves to human moral standards.

        It’s cute how we set ourselves apart from nature, and use terms like “humane” to mean better, refined, less brutal, yet the moment that notion might even slightly inconvenience us, then we’re just animals.

        Humanity? Pfft, fuck that! We’re just animals. We’re like cats, or dolphins!

        • ameancow@lemmy.world
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          37 minutes ago

          That user is a troll or something, their moderation history is just a long sheet of bans and removed edgelord nonsense. I regret the minutes I spent replying.