Viral video of dismembered lobster, topped and writhing on a plate, sparks debate about animal cruelty
By KTimes
A restaurant in central Seoul’s Jongno District has drawn criticism after a video surfaced on-line exhibiting a dismembered lobster with a crown positioned on its head, nonetheless transferring its claws and legs on a eating plate.
A number of on-line communities posted a video on Sunday titled, “The Lobster Restaurant Inflicting a Stir on Instagram for Being Weird.” The video, which was posted by A, a participant from a well-liked courting actuality present, rapidly unfold throughout social media, sparking extreme criticism from netizens.
Within the video, A and a companion are seen eating on the restaurant the place they ordered the lobster. The lobster, with its decrease physique utterly severed, is proven with a crown on its head, struggling on a big plate.
Along with the crown, every claw of the lobster was adorned with a letter and a single flower. A captioned the video with, “We had the ‘Lobster Cheers Course,’ the place the lobster greeted us with a cheer. Because of the lobster, we loved a scrumptious butter-grilled dish.”
Whereas a couple of on-line viewers discovered the video amusing, the bulk condemned the act. Feedback ranged from “It is disturbing to search out enjoyment in watching an animal in ache” to “It is a violation of the dignity of life. How can they crown a lobster writhing in ache and assume it is entertaining?”
Legal guidelines on animal safety
Not like South Korea, the place crustaceans like lobsters should not protected below present animal welfare legal guidelines, a number of superior international locations have taken steps to guard these animals.
Scientific research have proven that crustaceans, together with lobsters, crabs and octopuses, can expertise ache.
Consequently, some international locations have enacted legal guidelines that regulate how these creatures are cooked, making certain they’re humanely killed earlier than being ready.
Switzerland amended its animal safety legal guidelines in 2018, prohibiting the cooking of dwell lobsters.
Based on the brand new rules, lobsters should be shocked electrically or have their brains mechanically destroyed earlier than being boiled.
This transformation was prompted by scientific proof suggesting that crustaceans have complicated nervous programs and expertise extreme ache when positioned in boiling water whereas nonetheless alive.
Nations like Norway and New Zealand have additionally banned the apply of cooking dwell crustaceans.
Within the U.Okay., a 2021 examine by researchers on the London College of Economics (LSE) reviewed over 300 research measuring the perceptual skills of crustaceans.
The examine concluded that, in contrast to different invertebrates, crustaceans and cephalopods possess complicated central nervous programs, a key attribute of sentient beings. Consequently, the U.Okay. has banned the cargo of dwell lobsters.
In distinction, South Korea’s present Animal Safety Act doesn’t prolong its safety to invertebrates like crustaceans and cephalopods. The regulation presently solely applies to vertebrates with well-developed nervous programs able to feeling ache.
This text from the Hankook Ilbo, a sister publication of The Korea Instances, is translated by a generative AI and edited by The Korea Instances.