Do Lobsters Feel Pain? Do Crabs Feel Pain? | PETA Video Answers

Contrary to claims made by seafood sellers, scientists have determined that lobsters, crabs and other crustaceans feel pain.

Lobsters may feel even more pain than we would in similar situations. According to invertebrate zoologist Jaren G. Horsley, “The lobster does not have an autonomic nervous system that puts it into a state of shock when it is harmed. It probably feels itself being cut. … I think the lobster is in a great deal of pain from being cut open … [and] feels all the pain until its nervous system is destroyed” during cooking.

“As an invertebrate zoologist who has studied crustaceans for a number of years, I can tell you the lobster has a rather sophisticated nervous system that, among other things, allows it to sense actions that will cause it harm. … [Lobsters] can, I am sure, sense pain.”
—Jaren G. Horsley, Ph.D.

Anyone who has ever boiled a lobster alive knows that when dropped into scalding water, lobsters whip their bodies wildly and scrape the sides of the pot in a desperate attempt to escape. In the journal Science, researcher Gordon Gunter described this method of killing lobsters as “unnecessary torture.”

Many people have seen crabs scurrying along the sand and taking cover in their well-kept burrows, but these animals are still largely a mystery to even the most dedicated beachgoers. Marine biologists who study crabs are working to shed light on the fascinating lives of these crafty crustaceans.

Crabs have well-developed senses of sight, smell, and taste, and research indicates that they have the ability to sense pain. They have two main nerve centers, one in the front and one to the rear, and—like all animals who have nerves and an array of other senses—they feel and react to pain. Dr. Robert Elwood, a professor of animal behavior at Queen’s University Belfast who has studied crustaceans for decades, says, “Denying that crabs feel pain because they don’t have the same biology [as mammals] is like denying they can see because they don’t have a visual cortex.”

Like lobsters, crabs are often thrown into pots of scalding-hot water and boiled alive. The crabs will fight so hard against a clearly painful death that their claws often break off in their struggle to escape. Some crabs used for food are electrocuted, some are chopped up, and others are microwaved—all while they are still conscious.

A PETA eyewitness documented workers at a Linda Bean’s Maine Lobster slaughterhouse as they tore live lobsters and crabs limb from limb, ripped their heads off, impaled animals on spikes, and dumped them into boiling water, among other abuses. After PETA filed a complaint with the Food and Drug Administration, the agency inspected Linda Bean’s slaughterhouse and cited it for serious food-safety violations that may be “injurious to [human] health.”

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