Are you the type of person who worries that your lobster might have suffered as you’re cracking open its brittle exoskeleton and devouring the delicious, freshly killed flesh within? Me neither. But some folks do, so an inventor in England has come up with just the thing to ease their consciences.
According to the Halifax Chronicle Herald:
A company in the United Kingdom is about to lift the lid on a device that zaps lobster with electricity to kill them, and the inventor said Wednesday his humane alternative to boiling is about to give the entire industry a jolt.
British entrepreneur Simon Buckhaven said the CrustaStun system, developed over the past decade by his company Studham Technologies Limited, near London, kills the lobster with an electric charge, so the crustacean feels no “pain or distress.”
If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s seeing a lobster in distress. So, good for the inventive Mr. Buckhaven. And guess who’s interested in his device? Go ahead, guess. (Hint: They’re in the headline!)
Emphasis mine:
The inventor and his wife and business partner Charlotte were invited by animal rights activists to a big lobster dinner fundraiser last week, sponsored by the non-profit Child and Family Resource Centre in Tucson, Ariz.
“This is an important fundraiser for us but the animal rights groups were complaining about the lobster being boiled alive. The idea was the protesters would accept the stun device as a more humane way of killing lobster, compared to cooking them in boiling water,” said Eric Schindler, president of the resource centre…
The animal rights group PETA bought two of the lobster devices and paid for Mr. Buckhaven and his wife to fly to the Arizona event last Saturday to demonstrate the technology.
Unfortunately, the courier service lost the two machines and the animal rights people had to look the other way as volunteers killed hundreds of lobster in boiling water for hungry supporters of the resource centre.
Ouch! Poor sea-roaches. See, PETA goes nuts over places like McDonald’s and KFC serving chicken. They compare it to the Holocaust and try to scare away little kids who just want a Happy Meal. They even put out a press release when Obama swatted a fly, for cryin’ out loud. But when it comes to the yummy lobster going into their own bellies? Hey, whaddaya gonna do. Gotta eat, right?
Sort of like how PETA looked the other way while two of its members dumped a bunch of dogs and cats they’d just killed in a dumpster behind a grocery store. They care as much about the ethical treatment of animals as a lobster cares about the New York Times crossword puzzle. Hey, what’s a 9-letter word for “a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings”?
Man, I could really go for some shrimp tacos. Those little buggers pretty much just asphyxiate to death, right? Ahhh, whatever.
(Hat tip to Deceiver reader John)
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So, PETA is okay with eating lobster? This is the best news I’ve heard all day.
I think crab and shrimp are better than lobster anyways. Lobster is kind of bland and plain tasting.
On a side note, when I was little, I’d find the anthills next to the road and I’d stomp on them. All the ants would come rushing out to recover the dead, and I’d just keep stomping, ah memories.
My mom and I used to believe that ants recovered their dead so that they could bury them (or whatever ants do). Then when I was about 10 or so, my dad explained to me that ants recover the dead so they can eat them. I honestly don’t know if that’s the case, but it’s certainly more plausible than ant funerals.
I think PETA should protest ants.
Supposedly if you pour a bunch of grits around an ant pile, the ants will eat them and then explode when the grits expand.
/random ant-torturing childhood memory.
Pearce, Really? I gotta try that!
First off – was anyone else absolutely stunned it took a DECADE to invent something that electrocutes lobster? REALLY? Couldn’t have just put a lobster sticker on a cattle prod and call it a day?
I’d also like to know just how it is they know the lobster suffers less by being electrocuted. I was under the impression that the boiling process didn’t cause them a lot of pain, but even if I’m wrong, how can electrocution hurt less? I’ve been electrocuted, it’s not fun in the slightest and leaves you twitching for hours.
I was also under the impression PETA was against electrocution in general? Or is that just for cute fuzzy animals who’s fur we like to wear?
If electrocution isn’t painful and whatnot, why has the electric chair fallen out of favor for executions?
That said, the whole boiling alive thing does kind of squick me out. I’m not a big seafood eater, though. I wonder if the devices will be cost-effective for the average citizen.
I bet it was nine and a half years of paperwork and red tape and six months of actual invention. What do you want to bet you need a million permits to test death machines on food animals? Lobsters’ brains and nervous systems are different than those of mammals (duh), so I don’t know how they measure the amount of pain the animal feels when killed.
I guess Ingrid got tired of tofu.
Swede, when I was a kid, my parents didn’t want to use any pesticides because of my brother’s allergies, so they would put a ring of dry grits around anthills instead.
Same here Scott.
An umbrella I was holding was struck by lightning. I was grounded, the handle certainly deadened some of the voltage, and it couldn’t have been a full bolt since there was a heck of a lot of taller stuff around me at the time, but da-yumn! I’m not signing up for tazer testing or electroshock therapy anytime soon.
Even my hair hurt.
Your excuse is better than mine Minnow – I just had a friend who didn’t realize that turning the breaker labeled ‘Laundry Room’ off doesn’t matter if you don’t turn off the one labeled ‘Washer/Dryer’ too.
Know how many volts run through a washer/dryer outlet? Not sure myself but it was enough to make my molars vibrate for days.
“The only place city folks encounter killing their food is with lobsters. That’s what makes it such a hot-button issue,” says Jelle Atema, a lobster expert and professor of biology at Boston University.
Halifax! That’s the airport where lobsters are sold LIVE in boxes that are then stuffed all over the passenger cabin free of charge while United Air Lines — excuse me: UNITED AIR LINES! — charges the passenger to check a single bag.
Use the electric shocks on (1) the people who sell live lobsters at the Halifax airport, (2) on the idiots who buy them (“Look what I brought you from Canada, honey, a live crustacean!”), (3) US Customs for letting this happen, and, as always, (4) United Air Lines, who never met a passenger they couldn’t charge extra for basic services that should come with the price of the ticket.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
So…PETA is pro-death penalty, then? I mean, since it’s good enough for their lunch, it’s good enough for the guy who offed a family of five, right?
For extra amusement, I like to make my lobsters duel before dinner.
When I worked at a science museum, it was my job to electrocute myself and others on a regular basis for demonstrations. It’s not fun. And sometimes you get burns.
….and now I’m picturing making lobsters hold claws in a circle while I use a pencil sharpener-esque generator to kill them. That would be hilarious.
Ooo, Pearce, you reminded me of the Little House on the Praerie book where the teenagers electrocute themselves at a party! This was when having electricity in your house was a new thing, so apparently people would sit in a circle or line holding hands and one person would stick their finger in a socket (or whatever passed as a socket). And people think teenage delinquency is new. Electricity, the old-fashioned drug!
I bet country folks don’t think twice about sticking lobster in pots.
How’d I miss Mack’s comment? I’m claiming all my bags contain live lobsters from now on. UNRESTRAINED live lobsters. No gate agent will dare check.
Also read link from FS: I love that the scientist at the Lobster CONSERVANCY has no issues with killing lobsters. More proof that the PETA “people” are wackos.
Lobsters are pretty much giant bugs, tasty giant bugs, but still giant bugs. If you can step on a cockroach, you can put a lobster in a pot.
typical PETA hypocrisy
Besides the joy I get out of boiling lobster I love even more that it’s cheap. My mom was the daughter of lobstermen and born in Nova Scotia ( she’s an American now so it;’s ok). She can clean a lobster in nothing flat. Wegmans had a sale when she visited me from Florida in October, $7 a pound! We bought like 8 of them and gorged ourselves and my dad mentioned PETA not being happy with us for this. Now I find out they’ll eat lobster but not kill them.
I can’t wait until some conclusively proves vegetables feel something when they are killed/picked or whatever. Than maybe some of these vegan fools will starve to death. (but of course it will be like when liberals threatened to leave the country when Bush was re-elected)
so now it’s okay to eat living creatures as long as you electrocute to death first ?? PETA has so many rules ! it’s confusing.
Apparently you can eat the electrocuted animals as long as you don’t wear their skins.
Maybe you can wear leather as long as you don’t eat the meat. That would explain a lot.
What the Petards and Mr. Electrocution are missing here is that you’re supposed to boil lobster alive; dead ones should not be cooked. Or so I was told as a wee’un.
Mack, I understand your venom toward United Airlines for charging outrageous baggage fees, but why dump on the lobster sellers, buyers and U.S. Customs? It’s perfectly legal – and always delicious – to transport live lobsters both ways across the border.
I know that you must boil lobsters alive because they secrete a toxin when killed first. I don’t know if cutting their heads off or electrocuting them would alleviate this problem.
i was never a fan of lobster & similar creatures et al and was HAPPY to find i had actually been eschewing GIANT ROACHES. (thank you Sara Moulton, Food Channel Star http://www.foodnetwork.com/cooking-live/basics-of-lobster/index.html)
For the record, they’ve come down in favor of controlled-atmosphere killing for chickens, hopefully the start of a trend toward moderation.