There is a common opinion that cancers, as well as lobsters, crabs and other arthropods, does not hurt when they are boiled alive. We decided to check if this is true.

Not only culinary culinary wrote about the absence of pain in these animals due to the primitive structure of the nervous system sites, but also Mediaas well as popular Bloggers. For example, Ilya Varlamov claimsthat “just scientists have long proved that worms, crustaceans, insects and fish do not feel pain. When you put the worm on the hook, it does not hurt. When you throw cancer in boiling water, it does not suffer. The nervous system is not developed, unlike a person or other animals, so cancer, mosquito or worm is still. ”

To begin with, it is worth noting that crayfish, lobsters and crabs are boiled alive not because of the special cruelty of cooks. The reason for this method of preparation is their diet: 90% it consists of plant foods, and by 10% - of the animal, including fell. A huge number of bacteria live in the digestive tract of these arthropods. Therefore, even a couple of hours ago, cancer can cause severe poisoning. In addition, cancer Maybe be a carrier of infections that are dangerous to a person: hepatitis A, salmonellosis and even Typhus abdominal.

The nervous system of arthropods is really quite simple. It consists of three elements: paired supra -storm ganglias, a nerve ring and an abdominal nervous chain. The brain is two areas: an antennyl (antennae) responsible for the innervation of the eyes and the regulatory signals. Mike Laflin, a biologist from the Atlantic Prohus Commission of the state of Maine, in his research Came To the conclusion that such a brain device brings crackers and lobsters closer to insects who do not experience pain, and convulsive twitches of animals in boiling water are simply an attempt to get out of an unusual environment. “Everything is simple: there is no brain - there is no pain,” he summed up. The lack of pain sensitivity in crayfish for a long time was a scientific consensus. This version was often supported by that argument that in case of danger, cancer Maybe It is easy to discard the claw, not dead from pain shock, and then over time to grow a new one.

However studySpended under the leadership of Robert Elwood from the University of Royal at Belfast (North Ireland), refuted the previous hypothesis. Weting antennules with a solution of acetic acid, he noticed that animals actively clean them with their front legs. At the same time, if you first apply local anesthesia to the antennae, then shrimp is less actively striving to clean them. From this observation, the biologist concluded that such behavior can indicate that even in the absence of the usual nervous system, animals can feel a discomfort. The second similar experiment was conducted by him on crabs. They were able, like laboratory mice, to remember in which house an electric current awaits them, and no longer chose it as a shelter. By his own admission of the scientist, this was a surprise even for him: “When I started working in this area, I expected that the answer [to the question of whether artistic and painful pain was“ extremely unlikely ”.” True, Robert Elvud is stipulated, what the crustaceans will experience, may not coincide with the human sense of pain.

Another evidence in favor of the "sensitivity" of crustaceans has become happeningWhen in a Chinese restaurant, cancer, to get out of the pan, tore himself a stuck claw.

Experiments and evidence led to the fact that three years ago in Switzerland they introduced Amendments to the law "On the protection of animals." They recognized this method inhumane, and the cooks before preparation ordered to use a stun gun or mechanically kill crayfish and lobsters. In the same law, it was forbidden to transport living crustaceans on ice, since the effects of both high and low temperatures are inhumane.

Literally this year, Great Britain followed the path of Switzerland - there on May 17, 2021 Accepted The law introduced by animal defenders. Representatives of the fauna received the right to a comfortable life and were recognized as reasonable creatures. True, so far the law concerns only vertebrates, therefore, crayfish and lobsters do not fall under it. But public campaigns in defense of arthropods Continue, and perhaps the law will be supplemented by the rights of invertebrates to humane appeal.

Thus, the experiments prove that the arthropods are by no means “insensitive” creatures. Their understanding of the pain may differ from the human, but they can determine uncomfortable conditions for themselves and make every effort to get rid of these conditions.