Study Finds Crawfish and Crabs Feel Pain When We Boil Them

LAFAYETTE, La. (KMDL-FM) - All kids growing up in South Louisiana eventually ask the same question while watching parents and older family members boil crawfish and crabs in the backyard. As we all watched our first basket of crawfish or crabs being lowered into the boiling pot of seasoned water at some point asked "Do they feel pain when you put them in?"

The answer to that question has always been "Nope, they don't feel pain". Whether we fully believed it or not, it was a good enough answer to make us all not worry about it anymore and just dig in.

While this idea of crustaceans not having pain receptors has been one we've all believed to be true, it turns out that according to a new study, this is possibly not true.

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Do Crawfish And Crabs Feel Pain When You Boil Them?

Until a recent study, the idea that crawfish, crabs, lobsters, and other crustaceans don't feel pain when dropped into boiling water was a widely believed one.

This idea that they don't feel pain has basically only been based on observational studies, with the studies claiming crustaceans have very different nervous systems from vertebrates, with their responses being more of a reflex rather than conscious pain.

Zoophysiologist at the University of Gothenburg, Dr. Lynne Sneddon, says that based on a new study, people should re-think how they cook crawfish, crabs, and other crustaceans.

From newsbreak.com -

"The team at the University of Gothenburg took it a step further. PhD student Eleftherios Kasiouras led a study where they measured the activity in a shore crab's brain using EEG-style recordings."

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Evidence Suggesting Crustaceans Might Feel Pain

Dr. Sneddon says that in the study they could see that the crabs have some kind of pain receptors in its soft tissues.

Most crustaceans have similar structures and nervous systems, so the research team says that their findings with crabs can also be applied to crawfish, lobsters, and more.

While this new research is not absolute proof of human-like pain that crabs and crawfish are experiencing when we boil them, it does strongly suggests they are capable of suffering and feeling something.