It is easy to dismiss lobsters as unfeeling shells, their brain and body functions differing beyond comprehension to that of humans.

But in reality, lobsters have a brain and nervous system, a heart, stomach and intestines just like you and I.

They also have internal and external mechanical and chemical receptor cells, and their excellent sense of smell and touch are used to detect prey. They have compound eyes that cover a wide field and are connected by nerves to the brain and are well informed about their surroundings.

They can feel painful stimuli and can recognise and remember painful or threatening objects or situations and will actively try to avoid them. They also have an ability to learn and to make discriminations. They show understanding and memory both of places and of other individuals, for example by forming social hierarchies when a number of animals are kept confined together.

Lobsters in the wild can survive for over 50 years but a huge percentage live much shorter lives, as they end up in fishing nets and lobster pots. Physiological studies show that they are very stressed by the process of catching, handling, transport and being kept out of water. 

Many lobsters arrive at factories very weak, dying or dead, and they  make vigorous attempts to escape when they are put alive into boiling water to be cooked. They also often shed limbs, in a desperate attempt to escape response known as autotomy, which is likely also to be a response to pain.

Accepting the fact that lobsters feel pain and experience fear and distress due to our actions has far reaching implications with regards the way in which society treats them. It also means that what happens to a lobster matters to that individual, just as much as what happens to us matters to us as individuals. What lobsters want, feel, know, and experience matters to them.

The lives of lobsters are much more complex than we previously understood and this understanding of their sentience and cognitive abilities has far reaching implications for the way we treat them and the policies and laws we adopt.

Out of 49 lobster species, 33 are commercially exploited, many being boiled alive and served as a delicacy. An estimated 280,000 tonnes of lobsters are caught and treated in this way each year.

In March 2018, the Swiss government made headlines and sparked debate when they banned boiling lobsters alive without stunning them first, and provided the crustaceans with protections while in transit. But even with these protections, are we doing enough to address their cruel treatment and suffering?

As a society, can we both recognise the lobster as a sentient animal and still continue to cause them to suffer for our culinary pleasure?

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