Guest Editorial: Crabs are animals too

Editor’s Note: It seems that the arrival of moral consciousness in regard to non-human animals in the late 19th century has opened a Pandora’s box of uncomfortable realizations shaking some of humanity’s dearest beliefs and assumptions, from wearing furs, to hunting and fishing as innocent “recreations”, to our favorite food choices. Each discovery about animals, and their proximity to us (or intrinsic value to the web of life of which we form part) pushes us to adopt new behaviors, something that, as anyone in the business of social change can attest, is a damn hard thing to do. The latest spate of findings puts the spotlight on the “lower orders of marine life”, beings such as lobsters and crabs, and fish, too, of course, who not only have seen their habitats poisoned and destroyed at a criminal pace but are now the victims of unrelenting industrial methods of capture and disposition. 

It’s worth noting that many of these things have been known for decades but only now are they surfacing in the mainstream media—the “idiot media” —since the commercial infotainment industry, whose main marching value is cowardly opportunism, is usually content with mirroring and catering to the customs and beliefs of the most backward and corrupt sections of the population.

This unconscionable informational void has produced the inevitable disasters that issue from any polity ignorant or indifferent to the truths defining the great issues of the day. Thus many areas of the great oceans are now dead or fished out, and many more are likely to follow the same fate.  Just think of the damage that oil spills—let alone overfishing—have done in recent memory.As leading naturalists like Farley Mowat (Sea of Slaughter) have repeatedly pointed out, mammals of the sea like whales and dolphins have been hunted and persecuted with murderous tenacity or wantonly killed by fishing fleets and “traditionalist” societies since time immemorial, but at last, in the 20th century, belatedly, a fragile measure of control has been established in the face of species extinction. Not to begrudge for a moment the urgent relief that these great species have finally received, it is nonetheless necessary to point out that these animals, the subject of books, movies, and other forms of cultural attention, are easier to empathize with than lobsters, shrimp, crabs and sea turtles. The latter, more inscrutable, non-mammalian, and certainly less “cuddly”, have yet to awaken the “human compassion reflex” to the same degree, and this has relegated their class to secondary consideration, thereby perpetuating suffering of mind-boggling dimensions.

As the editorial below makes clear, this self-complacent indifference is so pervasive that we find it even among those who profess to speak for animals.  Considering that the liberation of these animals from human interference is long overdue, may the day of the crab soon arrive.— Patrice Greanville

   From ANIMAL PEOPLE—
   By Merritt Clifton & Kim Bartlett

The poster for an August 27,  2006 crab feast planned by the Prince Rupert SPCA looked like a bizarre parody.  A grinning cartoon crab,  pink as if already burned,  sprawled beneath a beach umbrella.

“Live crab,  cooked to eat at the park or cooked to take home,”  the poster advertised.  A photo of a real crab affirmed that real animals were really to be boiled–until on August 17 the parent British Columbia SPCA cancelled the event under pressure personally directed by Sea Shepherd Conservation Society founder Paul Watson.  Watson then pledged to personally make a donation and urged others to donate to the BC/SPCA.

Though the crab feast was averted,  the episode raised issues of posture and strategy which should be of pre-eminent concern to every humane organization.

“Our mission,”  the Prince Rupert SPCA web site predictably proclaims,  is “the prevention of cruelty to animals,  and promotion of animal welfare.”

Boiling animals to death,  as the Prince Rupert SPCA learned, is perceived as cruel not only by long-established consensus of the humane community,  but also by much of the public.   Promoting animal welfare,  by any reasonable definition,  includes avoiding acts which may be construed as either endorsing or participating in cruelty, such as boiling crabs to raise funds.

The Prince Rupert SPCA tried briefly to defend itself by citing the February 2005 conclusion of researchers funded by the Norwegian government that crustaceans such as crabs and lobsters do not feel pain when boiled.  But the Norwegian government also defends whaling and sealing,  against the weight of world opinion.

Researchers with ties to the Maine lobster industry have comparably defended boiling crabs and lobsters.  But these positions scarcely represent the prevailing scientific perspective,  recently summarized in the Advocates for Animals publication Cephalopods & Decapod Crustaceans:  Their Capacity To Experience Pain & Suffering (10 Queensferry Street,  Edinburgh,  EH2 4PG,  Scotland,  U.K.).

Further,  no matter what anyone in a white lab coat may contend,  the simple,  obvious,  self-evident conclusion of most people who see crabs or lobsters trying to crawl out of boiling water is that these animals are being tortured to death.

As far back as 1952,  delegates from 25 nations agreed at a convention hosted by the World Federation for the Protection of Animals that boiling live crustaceans sets a bad example of how animals should be treated, and should be abolished. As recently as August 10,  two members of Animal Rights Croatia locked themselves into a fish tank to dramatize the plight of boiled lobsters.

The grocery chain Whole Foods earlier in 2006 quit selling live soft-shelled crabs and lobsters,  in recognition that some practices,  even if legal and no matter how lucrative,  are too cruel for an enlightened and responsible business to perpetuate.

Unfortunately,  the proposed Prince Rupert SPCA crab feast was not unprecedented.  Animal Advocates Society of British Columbia founder Judy Stone pointed out that the Prince Rupert SPCA held a crab feast in 2005.

The Prince Rupert SPCA is among the 32 branches of the British Columbia SPCA,   a $20 million a year operation that serves more territory than any other hands-on humane society in North America. Long intensely critical of the BC/SPCA for many reasons, Stone has since 2001 fought BC/SPCA efforts to purge her web site,  <www.animaladvocates.com>,  of some of the content.  Many of Stone’s objections pertain to practices and policies which remain common among humane societies that hold animal control contracts.  Some of her web site concerns methods that were abandoned under pressure more than 20 years ago.

But Stone was up to date and on message in pointing out that a humane society that allows animals to be boiled alive as a fundraiser clearly has diminished moral authority to speak out against other abuses.

ANIMAL PEOPLE learned through extensive web and file searching that the Prince Rupert SPCA may not have been completely alone in promoting live boiling.  Oysters are also typically cooked or eaten alive.  The Humane Society of Harford County,  Maryland, holds an annual “Bull n’ Oyster Roast.”  The most recent was on April 28,  2006.  IRS Form 990 indicates that Humane Society of Harford County “special events” net about $27,000 of an annual budget of almost $700,000,  about half of which comes from animal control contracts.

The live boiling issue can be linked to the larger issue of humane societies serving meat at public functions, a practice that ANIMAL PEOPLE has editorially denounced since inception in 1992,  and the lack of humane attention to the suffering of fish.

The September 1994 ANIMAL PEOPLE editorial “Table manners” still applies: Excluding meat from humane events is no more than asking participants to adhere to the rules of the house,  on a par with asking church-goers to refrain from spitting and swearing during sermons or asking bar-goers to wear shirts and shoes.  What people choose to put in their mouths in their own homes may be their business,  but at a humane event,  it’s our business–and if we don’t make the effort to separate ourselves from the meat habit,  we really can’t expect the public to see us as the principled people we presume to be.

What about fish?

If someone jabbed a hook through the roof of a cat or dog’s mouth,  dragged her on the end of a rope,  and then either bludgeoned or drowned her,  most of us would immediately seek cruelty charges.

(This proved to be an understatement in view of the global response after just such an incident on Reunion Island,  a French territory in the Indian Ocean.  A single photograph of a dog who survived apparent use as bait,  distributed by news media in July 2005,  produced e-mail alerts and calls for boycotting Reunion Island until mid-October.  Despite many allegations,  no other cases were verified.)

If someone threw nets over cats or dogs and drowned them by the million,  presumably to eat,  but threw away half the victims as inedible,  the hue and cry might reach Alpha Centauri,  ANIMAL PEOPLE continued.  Yet the equivalents are standard fishing practice.

Fish are cold-blooded,  and mostly not as intelligent as mammals (despite some noteworthy exceptions),  but their central nervous systems are every bit as keenly developed.  Thus their capacity to suffer is every bit as acute.  That should be reason enough to not eat fish.

At that time,  meat and fish were still served at most major humane conferences.  That changed after the No Kill Conferences, 1995-2001, and No More Homeless Pets conferences,  2000-2005, excluded flesh while attracting more participants than all but one of the traditional humane conferences.  That one,  the annual Expo hosted by the Humane Society of the U.S., went vegetarian after HSUS president Wayne Pacelle introduced a pro-vegan food policy in January 2005.

Any humane society participation in animal killing for human consumption is inappropriate and deplorable,  especially in view of the increasingly well-recognized suffering involved in every phase of raising,  transporting,  and killing poultry and hooved livestock, plus the reality that the human appetite for fish drives the Atlantic Canada and Namibian seal hunts and Japanese and Norwegian whaling.

Yet actively participating in either a “crab feast” or “oyster roast”  goes well beyond directors merely practicing the denial typical of mainstream shoppers as they select cellophane-wrapped parts of dead animals at the supermarket.  These events involve humane society representatives in deliberately doing things to living animals which in most North American jurisdictions would be crimes and might be felonies if done to a dog or cat.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Lifelong activists Kim Bartlett and Merritt Clifton, previously editors with The Animals’ Agenda, the first independent international publication dedicated to animal rights reportage and the discussion of philosophical, tactical, and strategic issues concerning animals, currently serve as publisher and editor in chief of Animal People.  They can be reached at anpeople@whidbey.com