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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[–] Assassassin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 154 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Honestly that seems pretty reasonable. Boiling things alive is pretty barbaric.

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[–] Drahngis@feddit.dk 128 points 1 day ago (9 children)

It frightens me that we can't 100% agree that boiling a living thing that feels pain, is bad.

Humans are the worst.

[–] sturmblast@lemmy.world 28 points 23 hours ago (21 children)

Most killing involves pain, all meat requires killing.

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 14 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

And it should be instant. Not like the extreme polar end of those asian guys skinning a dog while it was still alive for the meat market.

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[–] kami@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 1 day ago (20 children)

Have you ever seen felines hunting? They are fucking psychos by your standards.

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 37 points 21 hours ago (13 children)

Judging ourselves by what animals do is a wild take. I guess we've just all broadly stopped caring about being human sometime around when "alpha males" became a serious topic of discussion in human behavior.

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[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 14 points 1 day ago

They get a free pass because they are cute.

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[–] citizensongbird@lemmy.world 59 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Will always be funny to me that lobsters are such an expensive delicacy at fine dining restaurants when they started out as food for extremely poor people in coastal communities. In the old days the general public viewed eating them as you would view eating a rat today.

[–] exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com 42 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Oysters have made the switch between poor people food and rich people food quite a few times. Tuna has made the switch in my lifetime. It probably has something to do with how easy they are to harvest/catch when plentiful versus the results of overfishing, and how delicate the food is in the supply chain.

[–] SupraMario@lemmy.world 18 points 1 day ago (8 children)

Bacon also, it used to be cheap as fuck. Same with chicken wings. Two of the cheapest parts of the animal, now magically nearly the most expensive.

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[–] Prior_Industry@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Give the tech bros long enough and rat will be a delicacy for the rest of us aswell

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[–] IndieGoblin@lemmy.4d2.org 34 points 14 hours ago (4 children)

Good. This may seem like a joke now but slowly over decades people will stop doing this.

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[–] Devial@discuss.online 31 points 17 hours ago (6 children)

UK government caring more about lobster welfare than that of trans people.

[–] trk@aussie.zone 71 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

I don't think you're allowed to boil trans people alive either

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[–] EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 30 points 17 hours ago

The bad thing is that these goals do not conflict with each other: they could easily do both if they wanted to.

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[–] PokerChips@programming.dev 29 points 20 hours ago (12 children)

The amount of people that are in knots trying to defend a barbaric practice is quite telling.

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[–] mlg@lemmy.world 26 points 23 hours ago (24 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 22 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 21 hours ago (3 children)

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

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[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 18 points 18 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 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 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 21 hours ago (2 children)

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

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[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 12 points 20 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 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 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.

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[–] DupaCycki@lemmy.world 22 points 20 hours ago (4 children)

It's just silly that this is still a thing in almost 2026. It's so obvious even Hitler banned it, and he was no animal rights activist.

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 22 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

He actually was, despite his horrific treatment of human beings.

[–] inb4_FoundTheVegan@lemmy.world 28 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

More formally, on May 15, 1942, the Nazis issued an order instructing all Jews to bring all of their pets to collection points where they would be euthanized.

Of course if animals were in the care of the "wrong" human beings then they had to be killed. Fascist ideology has always, and will always, be an incoherent mess of contradictions in service of bigotry.

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[–] cheesybuddha@lemmy.world 15 points 11 hours ago

Culinary school recommended a quick kitchen knife through the brain immediately before boiling

[–] BoxOfFeet@lemmy.world 14 points 14 hours ago

While they are alive and conscious.

That's why I fill my lobsters with propofol before cooking them. People always say my dinner parties are a snooze. I don't know why, I always have a good time. Of course, I don't eat lobster.

[–] lka1988@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 day ago

This doesn't kill the crab

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