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U.K. is the latest country to ban boiling live lobsters. Could Canada be next?
Although a ban on boiling live lobsters is set to come to the U.K., a Canadian fisherman says similar legislation will never pass in Canada.
“Live boiling is not an acceptable killing method,” the new guidance unveiled Monday by the U.K. government’s Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) states. Alternative practice suggests stunning before boiling lobster; among the measures that countries like Norway, New Zealand and Switzerland have adopted.
The new policy follows a 2022 U.K. law that said invertebrates like lobster, crabs and lobsters were sentient and felt pain like other animals.
But Jonathan Lamade-Fuentes, fisherman and co-owner for Moby Nick Fishing Charter in Mississauga, Ont., told National Post that the practice is justified as the food is prepared fresh.
Fuentes’ said legislation similar to the U.K.’s will never pass in Canada “and there is no point in Canada discussing this.” He added, “I do not see an issue (with boiling live lobster), eating seafood fresh has been what has been happening for the last thousands of years.”
Meanwhile in the U.K., Crustacean Compassion advocated since 2016 for DEFRA to act on putting regulation on inhumane methods of cooking animals. The push by the non-profit group resulted in 4,000 actions, in the form of emails and postcards, being sent to DEFRA in 2025.
“Boiling animals alive is a cruel practice that has no place today. Scientific evidence clearly shows animals like crabs and lobsters can feel pain,” ambassador Wendy Turner Webster said in a Crustacean Compassion press release. “Yet they remain unprotected under legalization and the suffering continues, unchecked. We’re urging the government to act swiftly to end this needless cruelty.”
A YouGov poll conducted in February 2025 commissioned by Crustacean Compassion found 65 per cent of British adults oppose the live boiling of crabs and lobster, up from 51 per cent in a similar 2021 survey.
Despite government backing, there has been opposition towards the regulations by the U.K.’s shellfish industry.
David Jarrad, CEO of the Shellfish Association of Great Britain told Daily Mail Tuesday that the regulatory measures will add costs to shellfish businesses. He also believes restaurants and hotels will just import frozen seafood from abroad instead of paying £3,500 (approx. $6,640 CAD) for stunning equipment.
Richard Wilkins, owner of fine dining restaurant 104 Restaurant in Notting Hill, London, U.K., questions if these regulations are really necessary.
“If you’re a big restaurant doing lobsters and you’re required to do something extra, it could create more of a staff cost,” Richard Wilkins told the Daily Mail.
Wilkins is also critical towards how the government is going to enforce this measure, saying banning this practice is pointless without enforcement.
“How do you police something like that? Is Keir Starmer(the U.K. Prime Minister) coming in in his chef’s whites to keep an eye on things?” Wilkins said to the Daily Mail. “The wider issue is whether we should be legislating on everything. It’s probably the most inane part of the strategy — if we’re just banning it without enforcement, that’s kind of pointless, isn’t it?”
James Chiavarini, owner of two restaurants in West London, U.K., said that this move takes away from traditional methods and suggested that smaller restaurants will be opposed to investing in stunning equipment due to already stressful financial pressures of owning a restaurant.
“Like any restaurant that’s struggling to make ends meet is going to spend £3,500 electrocuting lobsters,” Chiavarini told the Daily Mail. “We’re all in a hunter-gatherer mindset — we know things have to die for us to eat. That’s the natural world. If you take the view that we’re all part of that, why are we singling out lobsters?”
Chiavarini said that if animal welfare regulation was really serious they would look at the way chickens are raised to be used in fast food restaurants, instead of just singling out lobsters.
“People know what’s responsible and what isn’t. It doesn’t have to be brought in as legislation,” said Chiavarini. “The government just brought it in to make them look like the good guys.”
Debate began in Canada following Switzerland’s decision to regulate boiling live lobsters in February 2018.
Animal lawyer and professor at the University of Toronto, Leslie Bisgould told CBC in 2018 , that there is not a more horrifying act than taking a live animal and boiling them alive in your kitchen.
“Why wouldn’t we apply the precautionary principle? Why wouldn’t we choose our actions that we know don’t cause harm rather than actions that might?” Bisgould said, suggesting we should err on the side of caution.
The Lobster Council of Canada says that Canada holds more than half of the world’s supply in hard-shelled Atlantic lobsters.
Between 2017 to 2019, lobster landings make up nearly 100,000 tonnes per year and are valued at $1.5-billion, according to Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
Lobster boils have been a popular tradition for families and restaurants in the Maritime provinces. They also serve as a major tourist attraction for visitors, promoted through advertisements by Maritime provinces’ tourism boards.
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