Norway, New Zealand, Austria, Parts of Australia Bans Boiling of Lobsters Alive

New research In a study published April 13 in Scientific Reports, researchers from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden found that two common painkillers — aspirin and lidocaine — significantly reduced escape responses in Norway lobsters when they were electrically shocked causing them to feel pain

Scientists say this indicates that the medicines were muting the crustaceans’ pain processing.

“The fact that painkillers developed for humans also work on Norway lobsters shows how similar we function. That’s why it’s important to care about how we treat and kill crustaceans, just as we do with chickens and cows,” Lynne Sneddon, a professor of zoophysiology at the University of Gothenburg, a co-author of the study, said in a press statement.

“Our results emphasize the importance of ethical responsibility for the welfare of crustaceans not only in the food industry. There are campaigns to include these crustaceans in the science laws where we must reduce pain in laboratory animals,” she continued.

In the study, the team injected some crustaceans with aspirin, placed others in tanks containing dissolved lidocaine, and left others without pain medication. Researchers then administered an electric shock to the creatures for 10 seconds. All groups of lobsters started flipping their tails when the electric shock was introduced. According to Live Science, lobsters use tail flipping to escape dangerous situations. While all test groups exhibited the behavior, the lobsters that received painkillers showed decreased tail-flipping compared with the unmedicated lobsters.

According to the researchers, the results suggest that the electrical shocks weren’t just triggering muscular contractions but also causing pain for the lobsters, a pain that was diminished by the use of painkillers.

“This study can help inform how to make experiments gentler for the animal with the use of pain-relieving drugs. We need to do further experiments to find out the most humane way to treat and kill crustaceans if we still want them as food in the future,” Sneddon shared.

Norway, New Zealand, Austria, and parts of Australia have all banned the boiling of lobsters. Similar legislation is being considered in the United Kingdom.