But Do They Feel Fear?

(AP) A new study out of Norway concludes that it’s unlikely lobsters
feel pain, stirring up a long-simmering debate over whether the valuable
seafood
suffers when it’s being cooked.

Animal activists for years have claimed that lobsters feel excruciating
agony when they are cooked, and that dropping one in a pot of boiling water
is tantamount to torture.

The study, which was funded by the Norwegian government and written by
a scientist at the University of Oslo, suggests that lobsters and other
invertebrates probably don’t suffer even if lobsters do tend to thrash
in boiling water.

"Lobsters and crabs have some capacity of learning, but it is unlikely
that they can feel pain," the study concluded.

The 39-page report was aimed at determining if invertebrates should be
subject to animal welfare legislation as Norway revises its animal welfare
law. The report looked at invertebrate groups such as insects, crustaceans,
worms and mollusks and summarized the scientific literature dealing with
feelings and pain among those creatures without backbones.

It concluded that most invertebrates – including lobsters, crabs, worms,
snails, slugs and clams – probably don’t have the capacity to feel pain.

from AP via CBS