Crabs And Lobsters Probably Do Feel Pain, According To New Experiments
Crabby Red Lobster The jury's still out, but if there's a ghost of crustaceans past, it's definitely coming back to haunt us. Whether or not crustaceans like crabs and lobsters can feel pain remains a hot-button issue. After all, humans regularly do things like boil them alive, a process that leaves some people feeling a bit unsettled as their dinner rattles around in the pot in what sure sounds like death throes. According to Robert Elwood, a professor of animal behavior at Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, the evidence strongly suggests crustaceans do actually experience pain, contrary to some previous work. Elwood has been conducting a plethora of experiments probing whether or not crustaceans can actually feel pain, or whether they simply respond to a stimulus like an electric shock reflexively, and announced the finding at the Behavior 2013 conference in Newcastle, UK today. Elwood and his...