this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2025
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Boiling lobsters while they are alive and conscious will be banned as part of a government strategy to improve animal welfare in England.

Government ministers say that “live boiling is not an acceptable killing method” for crustaceans and alternative guidance will be published.

The practice is already illegal in Switzerland, Norway and New Zealand. Animal welfare charities say that stunning lobsters with an electric gun or chilling them in cold air or ice before boiling them is more humane.

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[–] mlg@lemmy.world 26 points 22 hours ago (14 children)

Uh, does anyone in this thread even know how to kill a lobster?

I feel like this is barely a problem, you usually slice into its head and then immediately boil to avoid any chance of rapid bacteria breakdown. I dont even know if theres any other practical method aside from boiling without slicing into the head.

Also not to be that guy, but is this really such a massive concern that the government needs to focus on right now? Seems like they are more concerned about handling lobsters than their own citizens after they labeled Palestine Action a terrorist group and had anyone supporting them arrested and charged as such.

[–] slampisko@lemmy.world 25 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Maybe the citizens have been asking for them to deal with lobbyists and they just misheard

[–] Dojan@pawb.social 13 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

I do think it'd be more humane to not boil lobbyists alive. We can find less grotesque ways to dispatch them.

[–] titanicx@lemmy.zip 4 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

I for one think it's highly appropriate

[–] Dojan@pawb.social 2 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

I think boiling is a little too traditional for me. Personally I think the good old fashioned French methods cut just right, you know?

[–] axexrx@lemmy.world 3 points 17 hours ago

I worked at a country club that would, occasionally, and on the hush hush for VIPS inject them still live, with a syringe of boiling butter, poaching them from the inside out. I believe that is the old fashioned French method

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 18 points 16 hours ago

You can have more than one law being established at once.

There has been systematic reduction in the humanities/philosophy, arts, literature etc. In countries. The affect it has is a society focused on work and compliance with status quo. (The USA is actively destroying their own system purposly)

A law ending cruelty should be celebrated as a glimmer of hope that we as a society are still capably of thinking at a higher level, that we are still questioning life, and meanings around it. If we cease to do those things we will be a dead automata society that lives only to work.

[–] falseWhite@lemmy.world 15 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (2 children)

Killed a lobster? I've never even tasted one. Sounds like a rich people problem.

[–] BarbecueCowboy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Lobsters used to be poor people's food. The taste is really just giant shrimp.

[–] axexrx@lemmy.world 4 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

1800s new England, they were refered to as sea rats, and it was a common clause in servants contracts limiting how many meals a week they could be given lobster.

[–] FosterMolasses@leminal.space 2 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

it was a common clause in servants contracts limiting how many meals a week they could be given lobster

Can you imagine, hahaa

[–] Bosht@lemmy.world 3 points 19 hours ago

Honestly not missing much. I don't get all the fuss, plenty of other seafood that imo tastes loads better.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 12 points 18 hours ago

Also not to be that guy, but is this really such a massive concern that the government needs to focus on right now?

Labour is flailing. They came into office with an enormous popular mandate to undo the corrupt and abusive practices of the Conservative government, then proceeded to extend and cement these same unpopular policies while engaging in all the same corrupt practices - in many cases taking money and gifts from the exact same people.

This is what they've got. Haphazardly pandering to any special interest group that won't step on the toes of a mega-donor or trip over graft being committed by another influential MP.

Seems like they are more concerned about handling lobsters than their own citizens after they labeled Palestine Action a terrorist group and had anyone supporting them arrested and charged as such.

AIPAC fully has its hooks into the Labour government, especially at the leadership level. In many ways, the sanction on boiled lobster and the sanction on Palestine Rights activists is coming from the same place. A need to crank up policing on everyone everywhere for anything that can justify a government sanction.

The UK police state is metasticizing again.

[–] TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 11 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (1 children)

Most people don't cook lobster and those that do cook it once a year.

No, they don't know how to kill a lobster. They buy it at the store, it sits in the fridge for half a day or two an they toss in in boiling water.

[–] smh@slrpnk.net 1 points 15 hours ago

My middle school home economics teacher told us the story of her cooking lobster for the first time. She thought they killed them for you when you get them at the grocery store.

She got home and opened the bag to find two live lobsters. The only pot she had big enough was glass. She watched those two lobsters boil to death and never had lobster again.

[–] KiloGex@lemmy.world 7 points 21 hours ago (3 children)

Lobsters have a decentralized nervous system, so stabbing it in the head doesn't really do anything. It's pretty much just something chefs started doing to appear to know more than the home cook. There's no scientific reason for stabbing them first.

[–] Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 6 points 18 hours ago

So then not only are you still boiling them alive, but you are also causing a lot of pain by unnecessarily stabbing their face off?

[–] forkDestroyer@infosec.pub 3 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

This is how I found out that lobsters don't have a single centralized brain like humans do.

[–] Railcar8095@lemmy.world 5 points 19 hours ago

Lobster as Lemmy mascot when?

[–] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 3 points 18 hours ago

This is why the correct method is splitting, where you cut the head in half down the middle and partway into the main body. Cutting the head off still leaves a significant chuck of the "brain" alive and unwell.

[–] pilferjinx@piefed.social 7 points 14 hours ago

It's such a non issue to dispatch a lobster before throwing it into the pot using your method. The guys who are against it are just fucking assholes.

[–] AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world 6 points 20 hours ago

Ikr. They stopped the lobsters from being slowly boiled alive but not their own citizens lol

[–] EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 4 points 15 hours ago

focus

How much "focus" does something like this actually require?

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 3 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (2 children)

Two ways to dispatch a lobster.

One is to put the knife behind the eyes, stab down and chop towards the front of the lobster, bifurcating the head.

The other is to put the lobster in the freezer for 30-45 minutes. This slows its metabolism to the point of practical death, so it doesnt feel anything when you put it in the boiling water.

second option is less..actively choppy, so i imagine most squeemish people would prefer that option.

[–] janewaydidnothingwrong@lemmy.world 2 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

oof i'd take the head chop over being rapidly frozen and then boiled, thanks

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 5 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (1 children)

Cause you're not cold blooded, or a lobster. So you don't have the same response to it that they do.

[–] janewaydidnothingwrong@lemmy.world 5 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Valid point but you cant prove that im not either of those things

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 2 points 15 hours ago

i can't prove you're not coffee either

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 1 points 15 hours ago

they also got that lobster gun that does the choppy for you if you're doing it in bulk or are squeamish

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 2 points 19 hours ago

The best I know is to freeze them first, not like solid, but just for an hour or so which makes them super lethargic.

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 1 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Worked at Red Lobster back in the 90s. The cook would just flip it over, split it down the middle and gut it. 5 seconds, it's dead as a rock.

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 3 points 16 hours ago

Yeah they also do things like that with other animals also, the point of the legislation is we have science showing animals (and fish also after bad science before) feel pain. And we are far enough in history where we can be a kinder species.

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 0 points 16 hours ago

It's about as massive a thing as plastic straws and that annyoing little tab in all caps now.

[–] sqw@lemmy.sdf.org 0 points 16 hours ago

i guess the moral question is whether that's arguably significantly more humane than skipping the severing step. to me it seems possibly unknowable; either way the thing does suffer the slaughter and the question is to what degree. if there's any culinary or other practical advantage to doing it, and folks believe it's more humane, why not...