The Animal Welfare Act 2006 states that its protection can be extended to other types of animals if it can be proven that they are capable of experiencing pain. There is scientific evidence to strongly indicate that crustaceans such as lobsters, crabs, prawns and crayfish experience pain. Therefore we urge that protection be extended to these animals too.

Although I always presumed that ALL animals were covered by the animal welfare act 2006, I now understand that this is not the case. Other countries such as Italy and New Zealand have legislation in place that protects the welfare of lobsters and crabs. I believe the UK should also be taking this route. 

The most common way of killing lobsters is to boil them alive. When put into boiling water, healthy lobsters behave wildly, whipping their tails and try to escape.  Experiments carried out by the late Dr. John Baker for the Humane Education Centre (The Humane Killing of Lobsters and Crabs, 1975) concluded that these were not reflex actions, but indications of pain.  He showed that death could take up to 7 minutes. This is torture.

Catching, trapping, handling, holding, storing and killing can cause unnecessary injury, stress and suffering to crustaceans. During these processes they may suffer infections and open wounds. They may die from starvation, dehydration, overheating, or from injuries sustained from fighting whilst in unattended storage pots or lost traps. There has to be legislation in place that protects these animals from neglect and suffering during the food process.

There is scientific evidence that crustaceans are capable of experiencing pain, which is a requirement for a regulation to be made under the Act. 

How do we know they feel pain?

The answer - They have a nervous system and related physiologcal and neurochemical mechanisms that indicate they feel pain. They avoid or try to escape experiences that would induce pain. They have the mental capacity to learn from, remember and respond to stimuli - this is also key in determining whether crustaceans feel pain.

Decapod crustaceans have very similar physiological and neurochemical responses to stimuli that would be expected to cause pain to vertebrates. In humans and other vertebrates, for example, opioids that are produced in the body can modify the nervous transmission of nociception and reduce pain.  Opioid peptides – enkephalins – have been found in decapod crustaceans, and appear to have a similar role as in vertebrates, strongly suggesting that they mediate pain in the same way to us.

Currently, the Act offers protection only to vertebrates. However, the appropriate national authority can extend the Act to include ‘invertebrates of any description’ if it is satisfied on the basis of scientific evidence that the animals concerned are ‘capable of experiencing pain’.

Since there is as much evidence to indicate pain in crustaceans, I believe that consistency is shown to all animals capable of experiencing pain, and that the Animal Welfare Act 2006 is amended to include crustaceans.

References

http://www.animalaid.org.uk/h/n/CAMPAIGNS/vegetarianism//3109//

C M Sherwin. Can invertebrates suffer? Or, how robust is argument-by-analogy? Animal Welfare 10:S102-118 (2001)

G Fiorito. Is there ‘pain’ in invertebrates? Behavioural Processes 12:383-388 (1986)

J A Smith. A question of pain in invertebrates. Institute for Laboratory Animal Research (ILAR) Journal online 33(1-2) (1991) http://dels.nas.edu/ilar/jour_online/33_1_2/V33_1_2Question.asp