Hi again from Budapest! Sorry for the lack in posts but we are pretty busy here and internet is few and far in between. Nevertheless, I found another interesting article for your viewing pleasure here: “Experiments reveal that crabs and lobsters feel pain“, a new article in the Nature News Blog.

Generally, it is considered that lobsters and other crustaceans are not sensible to pain, and are thus not protected by animal welfare laws. However, new experiments have shown that, when provided with an alternative to a scenario where they are electro-shocked, crabs will always take up the alternative at a much faster rate than crabs that weren’t subjected to the same treatment. So can we then say that these shocks must have caused them pain?

I find it a fascinating topic especially because of the difficult definitions of the experience of “pain”; how can we judge from a human perspective what other life forms are experiencing? In the end, I feel similar to the authors of the article: it might be better to give lobsters the benefit of the doubt.

What do you think?