I had an argument with a friend of mine about this- he claimed lobsters scream when you plunk them in boiling water. At first I found this dubious because woudln’t they required lungs and vocal cords to scream? then I thought well maybe its gas escaping out of their bodies or something.
I also heard rabbits scream when they are attacked. It struck me as odd-I never really thought of rabits making any noises.
I had the misfortune to witness a rabbit being attacked and eaten by a dog and yes, they do scream. Weirdest sound, too. Anyway-not something I care to see again.
-Flaco
If you gag them tightly enough, it doesn’t matter if they scream or not.
Apparently they do make a sort of hissing, squeaking sound when boiled and it is due to gas escaping under pressure; lobsters have no vocal chords.
Lobsters don’t scream; militant vegetarians do.
off topic, but good.
Jack Handy: If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.
If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there to hear it, does it scream?
I was about to suggest The Screaming Trees as a suitable band name for a psychedelic rock band, but I see it’s already been done.
It would make a great title for a SF story though, now that I’ve done the easy part (the title), would anyone else care to complete the easy task of creating a suitable plot and so on…
I’ve heard a rabbit bark before, but not screem. A friend of mines little sister had a pet wild rabbit. We used to poke it with sticks. It barked at us. Not loud and not really a bark. More like an angry cough. Teenagers can be cruel.
If a man says something and a woman isn’t there to hear him, is he still wrong?
A woman once told me that she put her lobsters in the freezer until they could barely move—then she put them in the boiling water. She had it all worked out that the lobster suffered less that way.
I too saw a dog tearing a pet rabbit apart. It’s horrible isn’t it? Really high pitched squeal.
Slightly off topic…nah, mostly off topic, but an anecdote involving boiling shellfish.
When I worked as a kitchen porter in Port Appin, Scotland, one of my duties was to peel and prepare the Dublin Bay Prawns. (mmm…) Basically, this involved seperating the upper body from the tail, and then peeling the tail. So we got a freshly boiled batch, and I was a-peeling away under some running water as I had done several times before. I was actually beginning to enjoy peeling prawns, when suddenly the tail of the dead, boiled prawn sprang into “life” and hooked around my finger. I expected the tough Scottish sous chef to give me some grief for the girlish squeal I eminated, but instead he looked somber and serious and said “I hate that too, mate.”
I had always assumed that boiling them would have destroyed any vestiges of a workable nervous system…unless I’m simply misremembering and these prawns were only dead and not boiled, but I don’t think I would have been peeling them to eat quite then…
“I took him out of the pot, and tried to run… I thought if I could just save that one…”
“And sometimes even now, you wake up hearing the screaming of the lobsters, don’t you Clarice?”
For crying out loud, people! BOILING things for your own pleasure is WRONG!
(see, even people despairing of the human race have a sense of humour)
Wasn’t there a Far Side about this?
Anyway, as a one-time chef in a seafood restaurant, I can tell you that they do not scream. They do, however, thrash around a bit when you stab them in the back right where the thorax meets the tail (it cuts the spinal cord and blood vessels and keeps the meat in the tail from getting as tough and chewy as it cooks).
“'Twas the Voice of the Lobster
I heard him declare
‘You have Baked me too Brown
I Must Sugar my Hair…’”
–Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll)
“Three wishes? Did I say three wishes? Heck, I’ll give you four wishes!”
A few weeks ago, sivalensis and I cooked a couple of lobsters. I had never cooked one before, and was so excited I told several people about the upcoming event. Almost every person warned me, “You know they scream, right?”, which I immediately dismissed as utter poppycock, perpetuated by the sheer creepiness of the image. Enough people told me, though, that I eventually figured there must be some squeal or hiss caused by leaking gasses.
Well, our lobsters must have taken Maalox beforehand, because we didn’t hear a thing. In fact, mine, who was still moving and looking around, didn’t even resist when I put him in. He just kind of lay there. “Do dee do…I’m being boiled alive. Oh well…thanks for noticin’ me.” Actually, I did hear gasses hissing out of him…about five minutes after I took him out of the pot.
I was actually going to post that night, just to let people that there are at least two lobsters in the world that don’t ‘scream’. I guess I should have after all.
By the way, they were delicious.
In my experience, they not only scream, they plead pitifully for their lives. At least that’s what I think they’re doing. My spanish is pretty rusty.
Even if they did scream (which they don’t) you drown it out by dunking 'em the proper way: head first.
Of course, you chase all the waitrons around the kitchen with 'em first.
The other Farsides were “There’s no place like home!” and the carnival dunk tank.