# Do lobsters feel pain when boiled alive **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [January 13, 2009, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-lobsters-feel-pain-when-boiled-alive/481165 "2009-01-13T22:52:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![blue\_infinity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_infinity/32/2817_2.png) [@blue\_infinity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blue_infinity)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-lobsters-feel-pain-when-boiled-alive/481165/61 "2013-08-08T11:57:27Z")
Looks like Professor Elwood has been zapping some more crabs. It’s nice when someone finds their niche in life. [Article](http://blogs.nature.com/news/2013/08/experiments-reveal-that-crabs-and-lobsters-feel-pain.html) and [Journal](http://jeb.biologists.org/content/216/3/353.full). ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-lobsters-feel-pain-when-boiled-alive/481165/62 "2013-08-08T15:28:10Z")
Moderator noting: this is a thread from 2009, until the post above (#61) that revived it. We’re OK with such resurrections, I just want folks to be aware, and not necessarily expect responses from people who may no longer be around (or even remember their 4-years-ago post) --CKDH ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-lobsters-feel-pain-when-boiled-alive/481165/63 "2013-08-08T18:44:19Z")
Thank you for putting a zombie note at the bottom of the OP. This is the first time I’ve seen such a note and I really appreciate it. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-lobsters-feel-pain-when-boiled-alive/481165/64 "2013-09-03T00:49:30Z")
If the pain is there with the boiling, it is over in just as much time as it takes to bisect the head. Maybe 1 second longer with steaming. I do the knife cut anyway, however. It is assuredly a quick death, one that even humans would generally say is “painless,” and desirable compared to the crummy ways most of us die. And we’re not lobsters, I might add. ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-lobsters-feel-pain-when-boiled-alive/481165/65 "2013-09-03T02:14:15Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > In terms of inflicting distress on “lower” animals, what bothers me far, far more than boiling lobsters is thinking about the fate of those tortoises that old-time sailors used to collect on the Galapagos Islands, then transport on board ship for long periods for use as food. I don’t like to think about those poor tortoises, slowly starving to death in miserable conditions. They may not have experienced what we regard as pain, but that was highly cruel to my thinking. I’ve just discovered this resurrected thread; I do wonder re this particular matter – wouldn’t the tortoises have been better eating, if they’d been fed and kept in OK condition, while on board ship – this from a practical, not a humanitarian, standpoint? Brings to mind a mention in one of Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey / Maturin novels, of the heroes’ calling in at some remote island, garrisoned by the British, on which there was a “tortoise-park” (splendidly weird expression, tending to stay in the mind), where hundreds of the creatures were kept for food, for ships that called in. The keeper was an elderly, disabled ex-sailor, for whose sad and isolated lot Aubrey and Maturin felt compassion. IIRC, he was a nice guy who took good care of his charges… ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-lobsters-feel-pain-when-boiled-alive/481165/66 "2013-09-03T11:45:27Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > Thank you for putting a zombie note at the bottom of the OP. This is the first time I’ve seen such a note and I really appreciate it. You’re welcome. It’s not going to be a general policy, it would take way too much time and effort, but I will try to do such as I can. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2013, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-lobsters-feel-pain-when-boiled-alive/481165/67 "2013-09-03T13:42:04Z")
> [@vontsira](#): > > I’ve just discovered this resurrected thread; I do wonder re this particular matter – wouldn’t the tortoises have been better eating, if they’d been fed and kept in OK condition, while on board ship – this from a practical, not a humanitarian, standpoint? Learning what they eat, bothering to keep some on hand (probably have to keep it fresh too), and bothering to feed the tortoises is probably expecting too much from a culture that had only recently started supplying dietary supplements to the _humans_ on board ships to prevent scurvy. It was a time period when looking after the welfare of ordinary working-class people was seen as unusual and extraordinary, and a great deal of suffering (both animal and human) that could have been easily prevented with a little attention and effort was seen as “normal.” ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-lobsters-feel-pain-when-boiled-alive/481165/68 "2018-01-30T02:39:15Z")
**[Pain in crustaceans](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pain_in_crustaceans)** Wiki. Not bad. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-lobsters-feel-pain-when-boiled-alive/481165/69 "2018-01-30T13:15:58Z")
Given the way they slam violently against the lid before succumbing, I’m thinking yes. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2018, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-lobsters-feel-pain-when-boiled-alive/481165/70 "2018-01-31T04:06:27Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > Given the way they slam violently against the lid before succumbing, I’m thinking yes. As pointed out upthread, they might be reacting to damaging conditions without feeling pain _as we understand it._. Like touching a hot stove. You yank away your hand before the pain registers. Now, are the lobsters getting a “signal” that they’re experiencing damage and that’s it or do they feel pain a split second later like we do? ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2018, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-lobsters-feel-pain-when-boiled-alive/481165/71 "2018-01-31T12:31:44Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > As pointed out upthread, they might be reacting to damaging conditions without feeling pain _as we understand it._. > Like touching a hot stove. You yank away your hand before the pain registers. Now, are the lobsters getting a “signal” that they’re experiencing damage and that’s it or do they feel pain a split second later like we do? Since I will consume lobster without the slightest pang of guilt, I find yours an attractive point of view. LOL [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-lobsters-feel-pain-when-boiled-alive/481165.md?page=3)