Minister looks at live lobster ban

BOILING live lobsters could be banned, the UK fisheries minister said yesterday.

George Eustice said the Government was looking at bringing in a law that would mean they had to be either frozen to death or stunned.

Campaigners want animal welfare laws changed to include decapod crustaceans for the first time because they say there is evidence they feel pain.

Mr Eustice told BBC Radio 5 Live: ‘There is a serious issue. We know that among some of the larger crustaceans, such as lobsters, they do not feel conscious pain in the way that we do.

‘But there is some evidence that they have a nervous system that enables them to detect stress and this is something that we ought to be considering. I’ve spent many an hour sitting down with our officials and experts. We are looking at this issue but it is a complex one and the evidence is actually quite mixed.’

A petition to change the law has more than 32,000 signatures.