# Sympathy for Lobsters? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 10, 2012, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-lobsters/609046 "2012-01-10T13:58:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![missinformation](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d07c76/32.png) [@missinformation](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missinformation)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-lobsters/609046/41 "2012-01-14T00:07:47Z")
The first time I ever boiled a live lobster, I was 9. My stepfather stood behind me (unbeknownst to me) and started yelling, as soon as Mr. Lobster hit the water, “Acccck, don’t kill me! I have a wife and kids at home…the agony, the agony!!!” I dropped the poor crustacean, tongs and all into the water and went to run away…ran right into my stepfather, who was laughing his backside off. ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-lobsters/609046/42 "2012-01-14T00:24:28Z")
This thread made me glad that lobsters aren’t kosher. ☹ My son wouldn’t eat fish for the first five years of his life because “they were Nemo’s friends”. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-lobsters/609046/43 "2012-01-14T01:30:18Z")
I doubt lobsters feel pain, but still, I’m unable to throw one in boiling water. In fact I don’t even want it to be boiled in my presence. Even though I like crustaceans and will hapily eat them. It reminds me of an anecdote. At the time my then girlfriend and myself were rather short on money. Knowing that I like crustaceans, said girlfriend, as a special treat, bought lobster. I refused to boil them or let her boil them. As a result, a neighbour ended up eating the lobsters (presumably after boiling them). My girlfriend was quite pissed off. ---
**Author:** ![11811](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/9d8465/32.png) [@11811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/11811)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-lobsters/609046/44 "2012-01-14T02:39:14Z")
> [@FuriousGeorge](#): > > Please allow me to introduce myself > I’m a crustacean of wealth and taste > I’ve been around for a long, long year > Stole many a crab’s soul and faith > > \ Soy un thermidor I’m a lobster, baby So why don’t you kill me? ---
**Author:** ![Theophane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@Theophane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Theophane)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-lobsters/609046/45 "2012-01-14T02:40:21Z")
What’s a thermidor? ---
**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 14, 2012, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-lobsters/609046/46 "2012-01-14T02:56:20Z")
> [@Theophane](#): > > What’s a thermidor? It’s how you get into a thermi. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-lobsters/609046/47 "2012-01-14T04:20:38Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > I doubt lobsters feel pain, but still, I’m unable to throw one in boiling water. In fact I don’t even want it to be boiled in my presence. Even though I like crustaceans and will hapily eat them. I absolutely refuse to eat anything that I’m not man enough to kill personally. Of course, since I have about as much killer instinct as a Buddhist baby panda, that excludes anything more lively looking than an onion. ---
**Author:** ![Theophane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@Theophane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Theophane)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-lobsters/609046/48 "2012-01-14T04:47:36Z")
I couldn’t watch a living creature be boiled alive, even if it was hideous. ---
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-lobsters/609046/49 "2012-01-14T06:18:17Z")
> [@FuriousGeorge](#): > > Please allow me to introduce myself > I’m a crustacean of wealth and taste > I’ve been around for a long, long year > Stole many a crab’s soul and faith > > \ 😛 Nice! I immediately thought of that while clicking on this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-lobsters/609046/50 "2012-01-14T06:50:18Z")
I seem to remember that lobsters taste better when killed quickly. Yes, that was mentioned upthread, but I wonder why. Do they have metabolic reactions to being boiled slowly that affect their tissue? If so, are they experiencing a hard death scenario? We must all know that pain is a very primitive neural function because it directly affects the creature’s ability to avoid danger and death. If so, then I assert the lobster does feel pain. But is it conscious of the pain? This is a fundamental question of cognitive science. What defines consciousness? Is a cockroach selfaware? Most would say no primarily because they don’t have any meaningful interaction with us except to run away from being squashed. It isn’t as if we have caged cockroaches and feed them crusts of bread. Similarly, how many folks have lobsters as pets? I’ll bet there are some, but very few. They don’t appear to be interactable with humans in any meaningful way. Curiously, some other aquatic species, notably carp and koy, do appear to react to the presence of their owners and come to the top of the pond not to be fed but just to say ‘Hi’. And relatively few of these animals are eaten. So, perhaps we will eat creatures that don’t appear to notice that they are dead. This, of course, ignores the mammals that we kill and eat on a regular (and apparently necessary) basis. I have known cows and pigs who recognized me. Eating those individual creatures would have been difficult. If I were starving, then yes, I would have. I am happy I didn’t have to do so. I didn’t grow up on a farm, but my grandparents had one and I spent several summers with them there. Very instructive. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-lobsters/609046/51 "2012-01-14T19:00:10Z")
> [@Theophane](#): > > I couldn’t watch a living creature be boiled alive, even if it was hideous. ‘The procedure was hideous, but I still couldn’t watch.’ 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Theophane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@Theophane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Theophane)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-lobsters/609046/52 "2012-01-14T23:20:07Z")
Some people kill small animals as a sex kink, not to eat hearty but just to get their rocks off. Human behaviour is fascinating. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-lobsters/609046.md?page=2)