this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2025
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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.

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[–] mlg@lemmy.world 30 points 2 days ago (14 children)

Uh, does anyone in this thread even know how to kill a lobster?

I feel like this is barely a problem, you usually slice into its head and then immediately boil to avoid any chance of rapid bacteria breakdown. I dont even know if theres any other practical method aside from boiling without slicing into the head.

Also not to be that guy, but is this really such a massive concern that the government needs to focus on right now? Seems like they are more concerned about handling lobsters than their own citizens after they labeled Palestine Action a terrorist group and had anyone supporting them arrested and charged as such.

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 21 points 1 day ago

You can have more than one law being established at once.

There has been systematic reduction in the humanities/philosophy, arts, literature etc. In countries. The affect it has is a society focused on work and compliance with status quo. (The USA is actively destroying their own system purposly)

A law ending cruelty should be celebrated as a glimmer of hope that we as a society are still capably of thinking at a higher level, that we are still questioning life, and meanings around it. If we cease to do those things we will be a dead automata society that lives only to work.

[–] slampisko@lemmy.world 28 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Maybe the citizens have been asking for them to deal with lobbyists and they just misheard

[–] Dojan@pawb.social 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I do think it'd be more humane to not boil lobbyists alive. We can find less grotesque ways to dispatch them.

[–] titanicx@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I for one think it's highly appropriate

[–] Dojan@pawb.social 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I think boiling is a little too traditional for me. Personally I think the good old fashioned French methods cut just right, you know?

[–] axexrx@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

I worked at a country club that would, occasionally, and on the hush hush for VIPS inject them still live, with a syringe of boiling butter, poaching them from the inside out. I believe that is the old fashioned French method

[–] falseWhite@lemmy.world 15 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Killed a lobster? I've never even tasted one. Sounds like a rich people problem.

[–] BarbecueCowboy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Lobsters used to be poor people's food. The taste is really just giant shrimp.

[–] axexrx@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

1800s new England, they were refered to as sea rats, and it was a common clause in servants contracts limiting how many meals a week they could be given lobster.

[–] FosterMolasses@leminal.space 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

it was a common clause in servants contracts limiting how many meals a week they could be given lobster

Can you imagine, hahaa

[–] Bosht@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Honestly not missing much. I don't get all the fuss, plenty of other seafood that imo tastes loads better.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago

Also not to be that guy, but is this really such a massive concern that the government needs to focus on right now?

Labour is flailing. They came into office with an enormous popular mandate to undo the corrupt and abusive practices of the Conservative government, then proceeded to extend and cement these same unpopular policies while engaging in all the same corrupt practices - in many cases taking money and gifts from the exact same people.

This is what they've got. Haphazardly pandering to any special interest group that won't step on the toes of a mega-donor or trip over graft being committed by another influential MP.

Seems like they are more concerned about handling lobsters than their own citizens after they labeled Palestine Action a terrorist group and had anyone supporting them arrested and charged as such.

AIPAC fully has its hooks into the Labour government, especially at the leadership level. In many ways, the sanction on boiled lobster and the sanction on Palestine Rights activists is coming from the same place. A need to crank up policing on everyone everywhere for anything that can justify a government sanction.

The UK police state is metasticizing again.

[–] pilferjinx@piefed.social 7 points 1 day ago

It's such a non issue to dispatch a lobster before throwing it into the pot using your method. The guys who are against it are just fucking assholes.

[–] TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Most people don't cook lobster and those that do cook it once a year.

No, they don't know how to kill a lobster. They buy it at the store, it sits in the fridge for half a day or two an they toss in in boiling water.

[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I feel like most people who actually cook live lobsters know what they are doing. Who else buys a live lobster?

[–] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Anyone with a few bucks and a grocery store nearby that carries them? I am happy to say that this is pretty rare. As a kid in the 90's it felt like every grocery store had live lobsters for sale.

[–] smh@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 day ago

My middle school home economics teacher told us the story of her cooking lobster for the first time. She thought they killed them for you when you get them at the grocery store.

She got home and opened the bag to find two live lobsters. The only pot she had big enough was glass. She watched those two lobsters boil to death and never had lobster again.

focus

How much "focus" does something like this actually require?

[–] AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago

Ikr. They stopped the lobsters from being slowly boiled alive but not their own citizens lol

[–] KiloGex@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Lobsters have a decentralized nervous system, so stabbing it in the head doesn't really do anything. It's pretty much just something chefs started doing to appear to know more than the home cook. There's no scientific reason for stabbing them first.

[–] Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 day ago

So then not only are you still boiling them alive, but you are also causing a lot of pain by unnecessarily stabbing their face off?

[–] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

This is why the correct method is splitting, where you cut the head in half down the middle and partway into the main body. Cutting the head off still leaves a significant chuck of the "brain" alive and unwell.

[–] forkDestroyer@infosec.pub 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

This is how I found out that lobsters don't have a single centralized brain like humans do.

[–] Railcar8095@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

Lobster as Lemmy mascot when?

[–] wheezy@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago (2 children)

So, how WOULD you kill it without pain?

[–] FatVegan@leminal.space 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] wheezy@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Sure. But, like, is this law pointless? Because unless it bans it altogether (and the comment I replied to is correct about the pain) then it sounds like it's pointless.

People said freezing. But that just sounds like more psuedo science. Is it science based? Or is it just "people say".

[–] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Freezing just slows them down. A lot of lobsters are caught in the Atlantic around Maine, they can handle your fridge just fine, and your freezer for a painfully long amount of time.

[–] ThatGuy46475@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Give them a shot of morphine first

[–] axexrx@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Lol I could see this becoming a delicacy- lobster that gets you high when you eat it

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Two ways to dispatch a lobster.

One is to put the knife behind the eyes, stab down and chop towards the front of the lobster, bifurcating the head.

The other is to put the lobster in the freezer for 30-45 minutes. This slows its metabolism to the point of practical death, so it doesnt feel anything when you put it in the boiling water.

second option is less..actively choppy, so i imagine most squeemish people would prefer that option.

[–] janewaydidnothingwrong@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

oof i'd take the head chop over being rapidly frozen and then boiled, thanks

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Cause you're not cold blooded, or a lobster. So you don't have the same response to it that they do.

[–] janewaydidnothingwrong@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Valid point but you cant prove that im not either of those things

i can't prove you're not coffee either

they also got that lobster gun that does the choppy for you if you're doing it in bulk or are squeamish

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The best I know is to freeze them first, not like solid, but just for an hour or so which makes them super lethargic.

[–] SippyCup@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago

You can just put them in the fridge. They don't need to be in the freezer.

Then drive a knife through their head. Dead before they know what's happening.

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Worked at Red Lobster back in the 90s. The cook would just flip it over, split it down the middle and gut it. 5 seconds, it's dead as a rock.

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 day ago

Yeah they also do things like that with other animals also, the point of the legislation is we have science showing animals (and fish also after bad science before) feel pain. And we are far enough in history where we can be a kinder species.

[–] sqw@lemmy.sdf.org 0 points 1 day ago

i guess the moral question is whether that's arguably significantly more humane than skipping the severing step. to me it seems possibly unknowable; either way the thing does suffer the slaughter and the question is to what degree. if there's any culinary or other practical advantage to doing it, and folks believe it's more humane, why not...

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 0 points 1 day ago

It's about as massive a thing as plastic straws and that annyoing little tab in all caps now.