Relax, this new law is not here in SA yet, so you can carry on with your joyfully sadistic culinary torture of these adorable, harmless animals.

They do taste mighty fine, though, don’t they?

Switzerland has decided to take a stand against those who simply pop a lobster into the pot, banning the practice “amid fears the animals can feel pain”.

The Swiss government has now ruled that the lobsters must be knocked out before they are killed, as the Guardian reports:

As part of a wider overhaul of Swiss animal protection laws, Bern said that as of 1 March, “the practice of plunging live lobsters into boiling water, which is common in restaurants, is no longer permitted”.

Lobsters “will now have to be stunned before they are put to death,” the government order read.

According to Swiss public broadcaster RTS, only electric shock or the “mechanical destruction” of the lobster’s brain will be accepted methods of stunning the animals once the new rule takes affect.

Animal rights advocates and some scientists argue that lobsters and other crustaceans have sophisticated nervous systems and likely feel significant pain when boiled alive.

What next, bears don’t like performing in circuses?

I also know that someone out there is raging about lobsters and crayfish being separate things. They are, but you’re probably technically wrong

Here’s Animals:

Lobsters without claws, like spiny and rock lobsters [like our South Coast and West Coast varieties], are often called crayfish, even though technically the term is incorrect. The most commonly used name might vary by region, but if it lives in saltwater, it’s technically a lobster.

And as for the lobsters / crayfish / kreef screaming when you pop them into the water:

Lobsters have no vocal cords, no organs of any type for audio communication. It’s just not possible for them to “scream” in any way we could hear, in any circumstance. The sound you may hear is expanding air bubbles trapped in their shells expanding and finding an avenue of escape from their bodies while they boil.

Just because they ain’t screaming doesn’t mean they ain’t hurting.

Anyway, some tasty food for thought.

[sources:guardian&animals&pacificedge]