According to the British daily Guardian, the Labor Party government sees crustaceans as “an unacceptable slaughter method to boil them while alive” and plans to issue guidelines to replace them.
Cooking crustaceans alive is already prohibited in Switzerland, Norway, and New Zealand. During the Conservative Party government in 2022, the UK also introduced a bill that identified invertebrates such as octopuses, crabs, and lobsters as “perceptual animals” that feel the same pain as other animals.
Animal welfare groups argue that cooking lobsters after stunting them with an electric shocker or exposing them to cold air and ice is more humane. Ben Sturgeon, head of the crustacean protection group “Custration Compassion”, said, “If you put a living and conscious animal in boiling water, it will suffer severe pain for several minutes. This is an avoidable torture, and alternatives such as electric shocks are already widely used.”
On the same day, the ruling Workers’ Party also proposed a method of keeping spawning systems and mother pigs in cages and banning factory-style breeding for dogs. It also decided to ban the use of electric shock leashes on dogs and introduce a humanitarian slaughter requirement for farmed fish. Hunting regulations, such as a ban on hunting rabbits during the breeding season, will also be strengthened.
However, Nigel Farage, leader of the right-wing populist UK Reform Party, protested the move, calling it “authoritarian control madness.” Polls showed high support from voters for stricter hunting regulations, but opinions were divided among the Reform Party supporters. According to a YouGov survey last year, 29 percent of the Reform Party supporters agreed to allow wildlife hunting, while 65 percent opposed it.
JULIE KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
