Boiling Mad: Crabs Feel Pain Robert Roy Britt LiveScience.com
robert Roy Britt livescience.com – Fri Mar 27, 10:48 am ET A
favored method of preparing fresh crabs is to simply boil them
alive. A longstanding related question: Do they feel pain? Yes,
researchers now say. Not only do crabs suffer pain, a new study
found, but they retain a memory of it (assuming they aren't
already dead on your dinner plate). The scientists say its time
for new laws to consider the suffering of all crustaceans. The
study involved using wires to deliver shocks to the bellies of
hermit crabs, which, being hermits, often take up residence in
left-behind mollusc shells. The crabs that were shocked
scampered out of their shells, "indicating that the experience
is unpleasant for them," the scientists concluded; unshocked
crabs stayed put. Another test was run to see what would happen
if a mild shock was delivered, one just below the threshold that
would cause the crabs to leave home. These mildly shocked crabs,
along with crabs that h