I have eaten at seafood restaurants on occasion, and also at the well-known Red Lobster®; however, I have never ordered lobster for my meal. The sight of these poor animals, piled on top of one another in a tank with their claws rubber-banded, was enough to dissuade me from any desire to consume it. I grew up land-locked, miles and miles from the sea, so my knowledge about sea life is embarrassingly little. What I have learned, has come mostly from reading and watching documentaries. I know that our oceans have been overfished, bringing many species to near extinction.
Male lobsters in Europe have a lifespan of 31 years; the females can live to 54. They do not “age” as we do, but eventually they die due to the energy required for molting. Not only do humans eat lobsters – they torture them by boiling them alive. A lobster’s sense of touch is far more developed than their sight or their hearing, which makes this mode of killing them still more torturous. They use tiny sensors in their claws to “smell” food; but these, along with their tails, are ripped off to get at the meat. They do not have the coping method of “shock” that we and other mammals have, when subjected to intense pain; so their suffering is intensified and prolonged when they are dropped into a boiling pot.
As of 2018, Switzerland passed a law making it illegal to kill lobsters by boiling. They must first be electrocuted, to lessen their suffering prior to being prepared for human consumption. Overfishing aside, pollution in our oceans is causing shell rot and other illnesses in lobsters. For centuries, human beings have shown little compassion or empathy towards other species, and very little for members of their own. I do believe that our sensitivities are being awakened as we continue to learn about the world we live in. The one thing that remains unchanged in myself, is that I still refuse to eat lobster.
