the NEW Foodament!

[Vodstok]

I prefer to inject my seafood with small amounts of drano. Granted, it is painful, but it is quick, and you get a buzz when you eat them.

[newb]

A new study out of Norway concludes that it´s unlikely lobsters feel pain, stirring up a long-simmering debate over whether Maine´s most valuable seafood suffers when it´s being cooked.

Animal activists for years have claimed that lobsters feel excruciating agony when they are cooked, and that dropping one in a pot of boiling water is tantamount to torture.

The study, which was funded by the Norwegian government and written by a scientist at the University of Oslo, suggests that lobsters and other invertebrates probably don´t suffer even if lobsters do tend to thrash in boiling water.

"Lobsters and crabs have some capacity of learning, but it is unlikely that they can feel pain," the study concluded.

[AUSTIN316426808]

Originally posted by ShankS
it's either ......get poked in the eye with a chefs skewer, or smashed through the head by seagull beak, either way its a crushing death.

crawfish don't have it any better. either swallowed by some sort of bird, stepped on or thrown into boiling water.

[ShankS]

Do lobsters have a central nervous system? or something of the like in basic form?

if so, then I think they do feel pain and the thrashing is a natural reaction to try and escape.

unless they are completely brain dead and full of mush.

[AUSTIN316426808]

I thought all living things felt pain, except for plants and trees.

[newb]

The 39-page report was aimed at determining if invertebrates should be subject to animal welfare legislation as Norway revises its animal welfare law. The report looked at invertebrate groups such as insects, crustaceans, worms and mollusks and summarized the scientific literature dealing with feelings and pain among those creatures without backbones.

It concluded that most invertebrates _ including lobsters, crabs, worms, snails, slugs and clams _ probably don´t have the capacity to feel pain.

Lobster biologists in Maine have maintained for years that the lobster´s primitive nervous system and underdeveloped brain are similar to that of an insect. While lobsters react to different stimuli, such as boiling water, the reactions are escape mechanisms, not a conscious response or an indication of pain, they say.

The Norwegian report backs up a study in the early 1990s at the University of Maine and reinforces what people in the lobster industry have always contended, said Bob Bayer, executive director of the Lobster Institute, a research and education organization in Orono.




I only report the news....personally I kinda feel bad for the little suckers.

[Vodstok]

Supposedly, many "lower" orders of life have the ability to sense touch, but have no pain receptors. Thrashing may be an attempt to escape from percieved danger, but not an actual reaction to "pain" per se.

There is also the possibility that in many cases, ass the brain (or whatever) dies, it has a tendency to fire off random signals that make for some awful, spasmodic twitching, even though it is technically dead..



That being said, aside from becoming a lobster, it is damn near impossible to tell if it is just twitching, or the lobster screaming "HOLY SHIT, I'M BURNING!!!! AHHHHHHH!!! FOR CHRISTS SAKE, MAKE IT STOP!!!!!!!"

[urgeok]

i used to have a boss that had no backbone.

i should have kicked her in the knee to test the theory.

[Vodstok]

Originally posted by AUSTIN316426808
I thought all living things felt pain, except for plants and trees.

Aha, but how do you know plants dont feel pain?


And trees are plants. You probably knew that, but i am a know it all :D

Bacteria are lifeforms, but i seriously doubt a single-celled creature has a nervous system...

[filmmaker2]

Actually, experiments have been done that suggest that possibly, plants are more "conscious" than we animals have supposed--that on a primitive level, they are aware of what's going on, and that when threatened, they attempt to protect themselves from anticipated or further harm.

But they're definitely not as smart as animals, because if an onion were REALLY smart, it would uproot, turn its roots into legs, and get the hell away from the person that wants to toss it into the spaghetti sauce.