# Do lobsters feel pain when they're boiled alive? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [July 10, 2017, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-lobsters-feel-pain-when-theyre-boiled-alive/790947 "2017-07-10T19:45:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2017, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-lobsters-feel-pain-when-theyre-boiled-alive/790947/21 "2017-07-11T17:45:35Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Could you just like, quickly stab it in the brain right before you put it in the water or something? (I know nothing about cooking lobsters) In my 20s I worked in a seafood restaurant (you probably would recognize the initials, **Guin** it was the G.C). Anyway, broiled lobster was one of the dishes I prepared. It involved grabbing two live lobsters and _quickly_ cutting each one in half, right down the midline. Three halves were placed, cut surface facing up, on a metal plate and put into the broiler, basting with butter periodically until done. _But_, they continued to move around for some time after being cut in half. It was a constant struggle to keep the claws from burning as the moved toward the flame. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2017, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-lobsters-feel-pain-when-theyre-boiled-alive/790947/22 "2017-07-11T18:28:23Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > In my 20s I worked in a seafood restaurant (you probably would recognize the initials, **Guin** it was the G.C). > > Anyway, broiled lobster was one of the dishes I prepared. It involved grabbing two live lobsters and _quickly_ cutting each one in half, right down the midline. Three halves were placed, cut surface facing up, on a metal plate and put into the broiler, basting with butter periodically until done. > > _But_, they continued to move around for some time after being cut in half. It was a constant struggle to keep the claws from burning as the moved toward the flame. I’m trying to visualize this. How can you place them cut surface up? Won’t the claws get in the way? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2017, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-lobsters-feel-pain-when-theyre-boiled-alive/790947/23 "2017-07-11T18:58:30Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > I’m trying to visualize this. How can you place them cut surface up? Won’t the claws get in the way? Yes, they kind of get in the way, [but it looks like this](http://img.erecipe.com/images/directions_upload/1573/79_5.jpg)(only 3 halves instead of one). ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2017, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-lobsters-feel-pain-when-theyre-boiled-alive/790947/24 "2017-07-11T19:02:50Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > In my 20s I worked in a seafood restaurant (you probably would recognize the initials, **Guin** it was the G.C). > > Anyway, broiled lobster was one of the dishes I prepared. It involved grabbing two live lobsters and _quickly_ cutting each one in half, right down the midline. Three halves were placed, cut surface facing up, on a metal plate and put into the broiler, basting with butter periodically until done. > > _But_, they continued to move around for some time after being cut in half. It was a constant struggle to keep the claws from burning as the moved toward the flame. What happened to the fourth piece? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2017, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-lobsters-feel-pain-when-theyre-boiled-alive/790947/25 "2017-07-11T19:24:35Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > What happened to the fourth piece? It became the third for the next broiled lobster dish ordered. Live lobsters come 25 to a box and we would go through many boxes each dinner. At the end of the night, if there was a leftover half lobster, I’d throw it under the broiler and share it with my saute and fry cooks.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2017, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-lobsters-feel-pain-when-theyre-boiled-alive/790947/26 "2017-07-11T19:56:32Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Yes, they kind of get in the way, [but it looks like this](http://img.erecipe.com/images/directions_upload/1573/79_5.jpg)(only 3 halves instead of one). Now I’m hungry for lobster. ---
**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:** [July 11, 2017, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-lobsters-feel-pain-when-theyre-boiled-alive/790947/27 "2017-07-11T20:03:33Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Yes, they kind of get in the way, [but it looks like this](http://img.erecipe.com/images/directions_upload/1573/79_5.jpg)(only 3 halves instead of one). What did you do when it burst out of a diner’s chest? ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2017, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-lobsters-feel-pain-when-theyre-boiled-alive/790947/28 "2017-07-11T21:33:23Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > Dr. Rose, in his efforts to dispel the notion of fish pain, states: > > This seems to actually speak against Dr. Rose’s point. Is there doubt that humans experiencing night terrors are undergoing a stressful emotional reaction without being alert and awake? Is it truly impossible to have feelings in your sleep? This is very much like the questions about medical procedures done under the influence of amnesiacs. Would you be reassured by knowing that the thing that’s about to be done will be painful as hell, but when it’s all over, you won’t remember a thing? Dreams are the same way – by nature’s design very quickly forgotten if you wake up during one, and typically not recalled at all if you wake up later. But even with dreams, would anyone comfortably go to sleep knowing that they’re going to have a genuinely terrifying nightmare, but hey, you won’t remember it when you awaken? This Dr. Rose seems confused to the point of being downright unethical. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2017, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-lobsters-feel-pain-when-theyre-boiled-alive/790947/29 "2017-07-14T13:13:44Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > Crabs. > > I will relate a personal, empirical and disturbing experience I had in the hope of adding further perspective on the subject. > > I’ve boiled many a lobster and crab alive. I’ve always followed the recommended practice to put them on ice prior to their insertion into boiling liquid and to plunge them in head first in order to kill them instantly. This has always worked fine. > \ I was gonna say apparently **davidm** has never been to a New England crab boil. Getting back to lobsters, ages ago – so long ago it might have been Graham Kerr – a TV chef advocated putting the lobster in cold water then turning on the heat. Like the old “boil a frog” parable, the slowly rising heat lulls it to sleep before the temperature rises to fatal levels. He claimed besides being more humane, it led to more tender meat; you didn’t get that reflexive tense-up at the moment of death. I can see why a busy lobster house might not want take the trouble but on the surface, it makes sense to me. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2017, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-lobsters-feel-pain-when-theyre-boiled-alive/790947/30 "2017-07-14T14:37:22Z")
I do not care if a cockroach feels pain if I smash it. The only difference with a lobster is that I plan to eat it after I kill it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-lobsters-feel-pain-when-theyre-boiled-alive/790947.md?page=1)