is eating lobster cruel?

Question

I am a meat eater but i understand lobsters have a particularly cruel death?

Answer 1

Many years ago, I heard an expression, “No one and/or nothing gets out of here alive!” One way or another everything dies. Its part of nature’s scheme. There is absolutely nothing wrong with eating lobster - or just about any other living animal.

I worked in many restaurants. I killed, cooked and served lobster - thousands of times. I never gave it a second thought. Lobster has a very fast and humane death. Its part of the job. Its part of the job description. It “goes with the turf”. In my opinion, the wrongdoing occurs when the lobster - or any other living creature - is killed simply for the sake of killing it.

With the exception of small children, no one forces any one to eat any thing he/she doesn’t want to eat.
Steamed lobster: is plunged directly into boiling water or put in a steam pressure cooker.
Broiled lobster: split along the spine from head to tail. The split lobster has two mirrored halves.
Once the lobster is killed, how it will be further cooked or prepared is a mater of taste.

I just looked in one of my many books, “Larousse Gastronomique” There are many recipes. [And this is only one book] I would venture to write: there wouldn’t be any need to have almost 4 pages of recipes for a dish loathed by those who think its cruel and unusual to kill and dine on something as elegant as lobster, if millions of other people didn’t enjoy lobster.

Personally, I don’t care for the taste of lobster. I prefer many other types of seafood, shellfish and fresh fish. BUT that’s my opinion and my taste.

Thank you for asking your question. I enjoyed taking the time to answer your question. You did a great job - not only for your information, but for every other person interested in reading my answer.

I wish you well!

VTY,
Ron B.

Answer 2

I don't think it is any more cruel than eating any other animal. Q: What’s the best way to kill a lobster? A: Before putting lobsters in the pot, I kill them quickly so they won’t suffer in the boiling water. I use a technique taught to me by a professional chef. It may seem a bit gruesome but it’s effective and more humane than boiling them alive. Place the lobster upside down on a cutting board, and position the tip of the largest, heaviest kitchen knife you can find between the legs, about halfway down the body, edge of knife facing the animal’s head. In two swift motions, first plunge the knife into the body and then pivot the knife edge down sharply to split the animal’s head in half. The lobster’s nervous system has no brain but rather a string of connected ganglia. The ganglia that control the rear legs and tail won’t necessarily be completely severed by this process, and there may still be some reflexive movement, but the animal is no longer alive. Q: I swear I’ve heard a lobster screaming in the pot. Do they scream? A: Probably not. Spiny lobsters -- the clawless sort that live in the Caribbean -- are known to have a sonic muscle, and research is underway to see if they use sound for communication in any way. But when it comes to the clawed American lobster, so far scientists have found very little evidence that the animal produces any kind of sound. That said, occasionally scuba divers in New England do report hearing an intermittent clicking sound coming from a lobster den. As for a lobster making noise during cooking, a "screaming" sound could certainly be caused by steam escaping from one of a lobster’s body cavities -- well after the animal is already deceased.

Answer 3

In culinary school they taught us that there has been a lot of scientific tests done showing that lobsters don't have the pain receptors that other animals have. Basically, they don't feel any pain when they die. So really it's "less" cruel than killing a pig or chicken for us to eat.

I'm not sure if this is actually true or not, but it just what I've been told.

Answer 4

No. Quite frankly, lobsters are given a kinder death than cows, chickens, pigs, and other animals. Lobsters are killed in two ways. One way is by boiling them alive, which sounds horrible, but kills them quickly. The other way is by sticking a knife at the base of their skull, and cutting the head. This kills the lobster instantly.

Answer 5

THE FIRST ANSWER WAS....
Not now days. The method now is to put them in the freezer until they go unconscious, then boil them. They don't feel a thing or know about it.
THAT SOUNDS CRUEL TO ME....but meat eaters spend most of their lives in ignorant selfish bliss, so carry on

Answer 6

Yes to a certain degree, but that is with all animals that we eat, I think anything that we eat without dying of natural causes is cruel to eat, it is something that alot of people won't admit to you or won't allow them selves to think about that factor. Just like you I am a seafood and meat eater, they kill the cows, pigs and chicken that we eat just like lobster, they don't die naturally, we kill them in the process so that we may eat. Good question though.

Answer 7

In some places people actually eat them alive --that is
definitely cruel and then some. Normally, they're thrown
in boiling water and to me a quick death isn't cruel.

Answer 8

Maybe you should try asking a cow or a sheep or a pig whether they like getting a bolt fired through their brain or whether a chicken enjoys having its neck pulled until it breaks the spinal cord. Or even if whelks, mussels and other marine creatures like a really hot bath?

They call this 'humane'??

Don't complain, my love, we are all complicit in the legal murder of millions of innocents!!

Answer 9

They are thrown live into boiling water, so on the cruel meter it's way up there! I love meat too and most sea food, but I just can't eat lobster, hypocritical I know but that's me!

Answer 10

Foolishness
Theirs is near a INSTANT death..
far better than cutting the Jugular and bleeding to death as Kosher and halal do
And that is considered religious.