Sir, – I agree with Fair City actor Rachel Pilkington that boiling lobsters alive should be banned. Invertebrates like lobsters, octopuses and crabs are sentient beings and, though they don’t scream in agony when they suffer, they feel pain in much the same way as any domestic or farm animal.
When a lobster is placed in boiling water, it suffers excruciating pain for however many minutes it takes to expire.
A humane alternative should be made mandatory so that these sea creatures are spared what amounts to torture.
I would suggest that the lobster’s ordeal far outweighs one’s enjoyment of a meal served in a restaurant or at a summer festival.
If people dining out saw a live animal being lowered into a vat of scalding water, they’d be revolted, I’m sure. Laws exist to prevent that from happening.
Let’s follow the example of Norway, Switzerland and New Zealand and extend the same protection to creatures that can’t cry out to us. – Yours, etc,