Lobsters, Dogs, What's the Difference?

You might remember that in Rome, Italy, the city council passed a measure last year outlawing fishbowls because they're cruel to fish.  “It’s good to do whatever we can for our animals who, in exchange for a little love, fill our existence with their attention,” said Monica Cirinna, the councilor behind the by-law, at the time.

Such touching affection for sea creatures is not limited to Ms. Cirinna. PETA, take heart:

An Italian restaurant was fined 688 euros ($855) for displaying live lobsters on ice to attract patrons, in an innovative application of an anti-cruelty law usually affecting to household pets. A court in the northeastern city of Vicenza ruled the display was a form of abuse dooming the crustaceans to a slow death by suffocation. "We're appealing," said Giuseppe Scalesia, who runs La Conchiglia D'Oro, or "Golden Shell," restaurant along with his brother Camillo. "They said that the lobsters, laying on the ice, suffer... They compared them in court to other animals, like cats and dogs."

The case was brought by Gianpaolo Cecchetto, a former environmental activist, who took his two young children to the Vicenza restaurant in May 2002. "They were shocked by the display," Cecchetto told Reuters, adding he immediately got in touch with the ENPA national animal protection entity.

It might not hurt to keep in mind that most lobsters are boiled alive before they're eaten. Should that be declared illegal, too, in favor of — I dunno, what's sufficiently humane? Would a nice sodium pentathol injection do?

Comments

[Jacob Grier]

Well, if you really want to know, the author of The Secret Life of Lobsters posted extensively a while ago on his weblog about the most humane way to kill them, complete with photographs. Ironically, the first step he recommends is placing them in the freezer for 15 minutes. Since they're cold-blooded, this slows down their nervous systems and metabolic activity. So while being out in the air was probably not enjoyable for the lobsters, putting them on ice was a nice touch.

Link:
http://www.secretlifeoflobsters.com/blog/2005/12/how-to-kill-lobster-dedicated-to-david.asp

[Rogier]

Jacob:

Thanks much for the interesting link. Turns out that that writer and blogger, Trevor Corson, lives only a stone's throw away from me, one island over. Chances are I'll run into him one of these days...

[Rob]

I'd care a whole bunch more if the damned things weren't evolutionary cousins to the cockroach. They're big bugs! Just tastier with drawn butter.

[Noam]

Connecting lobsters to insects is silly. We're evolutionary cousins with mice you know. Octopuses, highly intelligent animals, are molluscs, evolutionary cousins with claims, which while possible happy (according to a popular expression) are hardly going to win any logic competitions. People link lobsters to roaches just to soothe their consciences when boiling a fully conscious animal. If you believe that there is such a thing as animal cruelty, this is surely it.