The government of Switzerland has made it illegal to put
live lobsters into boiling water when preparing to eat them, according to The Guardian. The tasty crustaceans will
now have to be “stunned” before being boiled. The government order, which takes
effect on March 1st, reads: “The practice of plunging live lobsters
into boiling water, which is common in restaurants, is no longer permitted.
Lobsters will now have to be stunned before they are put to death.”
“Put to
death?” Must we now also give them a last meal and cigarette, and blindfold
them before dropping them into the pot? When first taking them out of the seine
nets, must we read them their Miranda rights?
The
Swiss Federation’s ruling body helpfully explained that the creatures can be
stunned via electrically shocking them, and added that live lobsters must now
also be transported in their natural habitat and not on ice or in icy water.
Their natural habitat is icy water.
According to the Lobster
Institute, a research and educational organization, lobsters
have a primitive nervous system, akin to an insect, such as a grasshopper:
“Neither insects nor lobsters have brains,” the institute claims. “For an
organism to perceive pain it must have a complex nervous system.
Neurophysiologists tell us that lobsters, like insects, do not process pain.”
What beings indisputably have
complex nervous systems, yet are still being slaughtered?
Maybe someday soon the pro-choice
crowd will call for babies to be “stunned” before being dismembered and having their
brains vacuumed out.
No comments:
Post a Comment