CNN animal alert: new study out of Norway concludes it's unlikely lobsters feel pain

[Guest guest]

This study is extremely damaging to the cause and it is also based on

the scientists' failure to understand that the biological objective

of pain is to make an organism avoid injury and death. The " escape

mechanism " (noted by the scientists conducting the study) could only

work if the creature were capable of sensing unpleasant stimuli, i.e.

pain. One could debate the level of pain a lobster or other

invertebrate might be capable of feeling, but one cannot through

logic reach the conclusion of the Norweigian study.

--Kim Bartlett, ANIMAL PEOPLE

 

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CNN Alerts: animal alert

 

Study: Unlikely lobsters feel pain in boiling water

02/15/05 09:34 AM, EST

A new study out of Norway concludes it's unlikely lobsters feel pain,

stirring up a long-simmering debate over whether Maine's most

valuable seafood suffers when it's being cooked.

Read the full story at

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/02/15/lobster.pain.ap/index.html

 

Study: Unlikely lobsters feel pain in boiling water

 

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) -- A new study out of Norway concludes it's

unlikely lobsters feel pain, stirring up a long-simmering debate over

whether Maine's most valuable seafood suffers when it's being cooked.

 

Animal activists for years have claimed that lobsters are in agony

when being cooked, and that dropping one in a pot of boiling water is

tantamount to torture.

 

The study, funded by the Norwegian government and written by a

scientist at the University of Oslo, suggests lobsters and other

invertebrates such as crabs, snails and worms probably don't suffer

even if lobsters do tend to thrash in boiling water.

 

" Lobsters and crabs have some capacity of learning, but it is

unlikely that they can feel pain, " concluded the 39-page report,

aimed at determining if creatures without backbones should be subject

to animal welfare legislation as Norway revises its animal welfare

law.

 

Lobster biologists in Maine have maintained for years that the

lobster's primitive nervous system and underdeveloped brain are

similar to that of an insect. While lobsters react to different

stimuli, such as boiling water, the reactions are escape mechanisms,

not a conscious response or an indication of pain, they say.

 

" It's a semantic thing: No brain, no pain, " said Mike Loughlin, who

studied the matter when he was a University of Maine graduate student

and is now a biologist at the Maine Atlantic Salmon Commission.

 

The Norwegian report also reinforces what people in the lobster

industry have always contended, said Bob Bayer, executive director of

the Lobster Institute, a research and education organization in Orono.

 

" We've maintained all along that the lobster doesn't have the ability

to process pain, " Bayer said.

 

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, an animal rights

organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, has made lobster pain part

of its Fish Empathy Project, putting out stickers and pamphlets with

slogans such as " Being Boiled Hurts. Let Lobsters Live. " Group

supporters regularly demonstrate at the Maine Lobster Festival in

Rockland.

 

PETA's Karin Robertson called the Norwegian study biased, saying the

government doesn't want to hurt the country's fishing industry.

 

" This is exactly like the tobacco industry claiming that smoking

doesn't cause cancer, " she said.

 

Robertson said many scientists believe lobsters do feel pain. For

instance, a zoologist with The Humane Society of the United States

made a written declaration that lobsters can feel pain after a chef

dismembered and sauteed a live lobster to prepare a Lobster Fra

Diavolo dish on NBC's " Today " show in 1994.

 

It's debatable whether the debate will ever be resolved.

 

The Norwegian study, even while saying it's unlikely that crustaceans

feel pain, also cautioned that more research is needed because there

is a scarcity of scientific knowledge on the subject.

 

And, many consumers will always hesitate at placing lobsters in

boiling pots of water.

 

New Englanders may feel comfortable cooking their lobsters, but

people outside the region often feel uneasy about boiling a live

creature, said Kristen Millar, executive director of the Maine

Lobster Promotion Council.

 

" Consumers don't generally greet and meet an animal before they eat

it, " she said.

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