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Cows and other land animals are hung upside down, tortured and bled to death, usually while they're still alive. What's worse about being boiled?

I thought cows were Put Down with the rod into the brain, which killed them instantly?

I'm not sure I could take any animal from the state of life to the state of food, but that's probably because I have the luxury of purchasing my crab pre-packaged and I have a rather friendly neighborhood butcher.

I'm not a biologist but I am under the impression that a crustacean's nervous system is not similar to that of a mammal. In other words, pain perception in these two species cannot be compared. A crustacean reacts to stimuli but the nerve center or "brain sack" does not interpret stimuli as pain. Again, I am not a biologist but I play one on tv.

Art is correct.

Crustacea are arthropods (so, if you have no qualms about squishing a spider or flushing it down the toilet then there's really no issue here), and they have a very basic nervous system that is generally recognized by entomologists are being incapable of sensing pain. A lot of hypotheses I've read suggest that the reason for this, besides being rather prehistoric in their construction, is that arthropods don't have much need for pain as a means of survival. If their exoskeleton is damaged in any way, they're pretty screwed.

The kind of bodily reaction to being stabbed or boiled is what is called a reaction to "noxious stimuli," a reflex to stress that isn't capable of being interpreted by their brains, since crustaceans (as well as fish and mollusks) don't possess a cerebral cortex.

I'm not a biologist or an entomologist, I just come from a family of them (I'm the black sheep-- an artist!)

I won't do it. It's sad and mean. But they are delicious.

Coming from MD, boiling crabs is an inherent part of life. Nothing wrong with it as long as we're thankful, respectful and understanding of the whole process that brought the crabs to your plate in the first place.

I can't stand to see any kind of unhappiness or discomfort, I remove spiders alive to the outdoors. But like sleggo, I have to admit I had some delicious lobster ravioli in the East Village Sunday night, Creme Cafe, I think it was, one of the great pleasures of a city visit.

I think every carnivore should have to watch his dinner die first. Just so you know what you're getting into, karma-wise, ya know.

I don't have any qualms with bludgeoning roaches in my apartment to death with whatever is handy, so I don't have a problem eating lobster. As previously pointed out, they're biologically just big underwater bugs anyway. I have more moral qualms with eating beef (which do also, but not without thought).

I agree somewhat with Jezebella here; if you're going to eat it, you should at least know where it came from and how it died. I can respect in this modern day that all people are not equipped to do the actual killing, but it's sad when city kids don't know what their food looked like in its natural state...

I'm from the countryside, I've seen the "men of my tribe" (and my grandmother...) lay down roe deer and moose and I have no qualms about boiling crayfish and lobster alive. My mother taught me when boiling crayfish to only put a few in at a time, hold them down towards the bottom of the pot and let the water come back to a real boil before putting more in. That way they die within a second or two. As mentioned, it's a human construction that all creatures would feel pain the same way we do anyway.

I know there is a lot of 'evidence' going both ways in the debate over whether or not crustaceans feel pain. I'm not sure about pain, but I assume there is some sense of SOMETIHNG wrong.

Some people prepare crab by cleaning it out first, which involves removing some of the crabs extremities. While its still aware of what's going on. I don't know if they can feel pain, but their reactions make it clear that they definitely know something isn't right.