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.
Perhaps “entirely because of taste” is an over statement. It is in reality probably a mixture of freshness and taste, the former being related both to food safety and taste. Nevertheless, living in a world of sea food abundance (and others), if you can not prepare a certain item of food safely without torturing an animal and yet still do it, then you are not doing this for survival but ultimately validating a tortorous means of cooking as a means to reach a certain pleasure. I myself, despite not eating lobsters, lambs, goose liver etc for this very reason, still for instance consume eggs knowing that chicken farms can practice male chick culling where I live. So it is not my intention to point fingers at anyone but just pointing out some observations and some of my inner contradictions on this issue.