Another Country Has Banned Boiling Live Lobsters. Some Scientists Wonder Why.

The Swiss Federal Council issued an order this week banning cooks in Switzerland from placing live lobsters into pots of boiling water - joining a few other jurisdictions that have protections for the decapod crustaceans. Switzerland's new measure stipulates that beginning March 1, lobsters must be knocked out - either by electric shock or "mechanical destruction" of the brain - before boiling them, according to Swiss public broadcaster RTS.

The announcement reignited a long-running debate: Can lobsters even feel pain?

"They can sense their environment," said Bob Bayer, executive director of the University of Maine's Lobster Institute, "but they probably don't have the ability to process pain."

Boiling lobsters alive is already illegal in some places, including New Zealand and Reggio Emilia, a city in northern Italy, according to the animal rights group Viva.

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