>>I can happily go to a restaurant and have a steak, but I know that if they led the animal out and slaughterd it at my table, I'd be less inclined. It's probably one of the main reasons why I'm not a lobster eater. I hear how great lobster is, but having to actually choose which one will die leaves me out. By the time I looked at them all in the tank, I'd probably have given them all names and bonded with them.
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>Dip your hand in the tank and feel how they'd love to bond with you :).


They can't do you any harm with their claws bound. Not that it wouldn't be prudent to do a quick rubber band count before sticking your hand into the tank. It isn't unusual to see a dead lobster or one with a missing limb in the tank, which tends to happen after another lobster has somehow gotten a claw free.

My younger daughter, who loves eating lobster, is now making noise about giving it up. I had told her that they are killed instantly by boiling water, which was what I had always believed to be true. More recently I have read that they can actually survive for several minutes, especially if the water isn't at a rolling boil when they go into the pot. It didn't bother me much because I consider lobsters pretty darned unevolved and and can't get too worked up about what happens to them. Not Emily. She loves all critters and can't stand to think of even a lobster suffering. (If she were in this conversation the hunters would be getting a double earful from her about "shooting poor defenseless animals").