Second, to the person who gets ill from boiling lobsters, it might help you to know that a lobster has no central nervous system, and so can’t feel pain. Yes, I know “but they twitch around!” So do bacteria as your immune system breaks them down. In lobster, those are reactions due to nociception– pain reception without consciousness.

I could link to dozens of articles, but a simple google search of “do lobsters feel pain” or “pain versus nociception” will do just fine.”
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RE:

Listen doof face. :B
Who euthanizes a lobster?
They get released in the ocean.

And I’d like to throw you into a boilling pot of water, see how you like it!
It doesn’t matter whether they feel it or not, the whole idea of something like that is pretty gruesome.

Lobster rights for the win?

-Binx♥

Have you ever stepped on a cockroach?

In Maine we don’t have cockroaches we have lobstahs…yum yum.(patting my tummy:)

Ali, your reply was reasonable enough that I feel guilty not taking you seriously.

The conclusion that lobsters feel pain IS reached through comparison to other animals. Lobsters are arthropods, the same as insects and spiders. Again, they have no central nervous system–no brain or complex processing center for neuronal signals.

You ask when was the last time I saw a bacteria climb out of a petri dish. I understand your point. What is hard to get here is that there are very complex biochemical pathways regulating movement and reactions. When the doctor taps you on the knee, a cell body in your knee sends a signal up to your backbone, where it talks to another cell, which sends a signal back to your leg muscle and makes it jerk. This reaction still occurs if a person cannot feel the tap– ie, you could cut the nerves responsible for pain off from your brain, and you would be entirely unaware of your knee being tapped, but you would still jerk your knee.

In the same way, bacteria will speed up the beating of their flagella when they are in an acidic environment or in a hot environment, causing them to move away from that factor. They can respond to other harmful stimuli as well, and the right species of bacteria could indeed wriggle right off the edge of a petri dish. Now, this isn’t exactly the same as lobsters, as these reactions take place by a diffuse chemical reaction instead of being coordinated by nerves, but they do have one thing in common: they don’t travel through a conscious processing unit such as a brain.

This is why, as you probably read, although you can’t PROVE one way or another, nearly everyone who studies the subject agrees that lobsters don’t feel pain. Don’t forget, science NEVER proves anything, it only provides overwhelming evidence. There’s always some small chance of error.

As far as the best way to prepare lobsters, I leave that up to Alex. Also, Alex, go to a local animal shelter and see their success rate with “rehoming” animals. I agree, it would be easy to put the lobsters in the ocean. However, from real-world experience, I think it’s unlikely that this is GOING to happen.

Well reasoned! Clearly if something can’t be proven one way or another, there must therefore be an even 50-50 split among experts and equal evidence in either direction!!

Alex,
:D

First of all, I am pretty sure that the lobsters will be able to be rehomed (I hear the ocean is a good place for that)

Secondly, of course lobsters feel pain. The “oh the don’t feel pain” thing was tried by Norwegian scientists with reference to worms as the country was looking at banning sticking worms on hooks due to the fact that it was cruel. It’s bunkum.

Still, if it makes you feel better, you can pretend they don’t feel pain. Or, alternately, you can just own up to being fairly despicable and say you don’t care because you find them tasty.

By the way, most seafood chefs do not recommend boiling the lobster live, as it spoils the meat. I wonder why that is? Evidently there are chemicals released when the lobster is killed this way that most definitely relate to a sudden rush of, yes agony, and stress. That’s why things like wegu beef cost so much, because care is taken not to stress the animal as it dies.

I like flesh as much as the next guy. I just don’t pretend I’m less of an asshole animal murderer for eating it.

As I am inclined to think that lobsters, like most others in the animal kingdom, do feel pain, I took your advice and did some google research. It seems that the authorities are split. You’re right, no one can prove they do feel pain; however, no one can prove that they do not.

Since it is a common trait among living creatures to recognize pain, why would anyone assume lobsters do not? If it can’t be proven, shouldn’t this issue be analyzed by comparison to other animals?

Furthermore, you say bacteria also “twitch” when breaking down (which I will take your word for because I know nothing about this subject). But, when was the last time you saw bacteria crawl out of a petri dish and attempt to escape the lab?

Second, to the person who gets ill from boiling lobsters, it might help you to know that a lobster has no central nervous system, and so can’t feel pain. Yes, I know “but they twitch around!” So do bacteria as your immune system breaks them down. In lobster, those are reactions due to nociception– pain reception without consciousness.

I could link to dozens of articles, but a simple google search of “do lobsters feel pain” or “pain versus nociception” will do just fine.