Holding animals in restaurant tanks
Live lobsters may remain in restaurant tanks until an order is placed. A restaurant should have a written handling and killing procedure before keeping live animals for food.
Crabs and lobsters should not be cooked alive.
Crabs, lobsters and other decapod crustaceans show several responses that researchers use when assessing pain and sentience. The available evidence is strong enough that restaurants and food businesses should make the animal unconscious and then kill them before boiling, steaming, cutting or other processing begins.
Can crabs and lobsters feel pain?
A review commissioned by the UK government examined more than 300 scientific studies. The authors found strong evidence of sentience in true crabs and substantial evidence in several other decapod groups, including astacid lobsters and crayfish. The report recommended that all decapod crustaceans should be treated as sentient animals in animal welfare law.
Read the full LSE reviewWhat is happening now?
Live crabs and lobsters are still held in tanks, sold directly to the public and cooked in restaurants. Boiling, steaming or cutting can begin while the animal is conscious. Chilling or inactivity does not reliably show that every species is unconscious.
Live sale to the public
People can buy live crabs or lobsters without equipment, training or clear welfare instructions. This can lead to prolonged handling and cooking methods that begin while the animal is still conscious.
Cooking in restaurant kitchens
Kitchen procedures vary. Some staff may place a live animal directly into boiling water or steam. Restaurants can change this by requiring a species appropriate method that makes the animal unconscious and kills them before cooking starts.
What should restaurants do?
Restaurants and food businesses should have a written method for every live crustacean species they handle. Staff should be trained to make the animal unconscious, confirm that the method worked and complete killing before boiling, steaming, cutting or dismemberment. The procedure should follow current professional guidance and should be reviewed when that guidance changes.
Read professional welfare guidanceTake action
These tools open a prepared email, provide official links for finding elected officials and give you a short question that can be used before ordering.
Email a restaurant
Enter the restaurant details below. The button opens an email draft in your email app. You can edit the wording before sending it.
Contact elected officials
Use the official directories below to find the people who represent you. Open their contact form and send the prepared letter.
Please consider legislation or agency guidance requiring crabs, lobsters and other decapod crustaceans to be made unconscious and killed before boiling, steaming, cutting or other invasive processing begins.
A major review commissioned by the UK government examined more than 300 studies and recommended treating all decapod crustaceans as sentient animals for animal welfare law. The United Kingdom now includes decapod crustaceans in the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022.
A practical rule should require trained staff, a method suitable for the species, confirmation that the animal is unconscious and completion of killing before cooking or processing begins.
Please let me know whether you would support this type of protection and which agency or legislative committee would be responsible for considering it.
Ask before ordering
Before I order, can you tell me whether crabs and lobsters are killed before they are boiled or steamed?
Why this site exists
This site started after I watched a restaurant video showing several live crabs packed into a tabletop steamer while people gathered around. I kept thinking about it afterward and began looking for reliable information about crustacean pain and current killing methods.
I made this site to put the main sources and a few practical actions in one place. It is an independent project and does not represent a charity, restaurant group or research institution.
Read the full storySources
These are the main reports, laws, guidance pages and studies used for the wording on this site.
London School of Economics
Summary of the government commissioned sentience review
Full LSE review
Evidence tables, limitations and recommendations
Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022
Section 5 includes decapod crustaceans
Animal welfare strategy for England
Current policy statement on live boiling and killing guidance
RSPCA Australia guidance
Handling, stunning, killing and confirmation of insensibility
Frontiers in Animal Science, 2024
Assessment of electrical stunning and loss of sensibility
Scientific Reports, 2026
Responses to a noxious stimulus and analgesia in Norway lobsters
Source wording reviewed on July 23, 2026.