No!

It's not right! It's unnecessary, and undoubtedly cruel.

So, why did I decide on this topic? Well, I came across a video on Twitter, whereby a crab appeared to be being boiled alive, whilst casually consuming some corn-on-the-cob, that was cooking alongside it in the pot. Naturally, I was curious whether the video is 'real or not', so I went to Youtube to see if I could in some way verify its authenticity, as you have to admit, that's some unusual and noteworthy behaviour. (If you're wondering, I found what appeared to be the same crab eating corn, but instead of simmering in a pan, it was in some kind of shallow aquarium and eating corn, so, based on that, my assumption is that the video that I seen on Twitter is inauthentic). 

After I had watched the first video, I then went on to watch (in horror), a few videos of a similar nature, and in one of the videos I watched, there were animals being thrown into water that wasn't even nearly at boiling point! 

In a different video, they were live-cooking baby octopi, and they put one of them into boiling water, and the other one into boiling oil. The octopi were swimming around, writhing in agony, curling their limbs, and trying to escape their cruel fate, and what stood-out amongst all of this was the apparent lack of empathy towards the creature that was literally being cooked alive. 

It was only *after* they had been swimming in boiling water for around a minute that they bothered to cut the poor thing's head off; why not cut its head off beforehand? I mean, it's certainly not ideal, and I don't condone cutting an octopus' head off, when it could be living its best life in the ocean, suckering empty coconut halves to form a protective shell around itself, but, I think that, when we discuss a topic like this, we need to understand that, when the alternative is it being cooked alive, cutting its head off before you cook it, is the lesser of two evils.

In the final video I watched, there was a person trying to cook upto five or more live crabs, in a pot that was not only too small for even a single crab and was undeniably unfit for purpose, but the waterline in that pot, was really low, so when the person placed the lid (and the lid was much taller than the pot that the crabs were being cooked in), those crabs would have simply steamed-to-death;  I couldn't imagine inflicting such a cruel fate on my worst enemies, yet here people are, not even bothering to do a quick search online, so that they have some idea of what they are doing, before putting them through that.

If you *must* eat animals for food, at the VERY least, minimise their suffering as much as you possibly can, which includes doing all your prep beforehand, having everything ready and making damned sure there is enough water in the pan to completely cover the animal, and make damned sure that that water is literally boiling. I'm not condoning the practice, and I'm not trying to come across as preachy, but if you have no choice but to eat an animal, at least don't torture it first. (sorry, I know that's a really heavy word, but that is, unfortunately, the reality of the situation for these poor, living, intelligent creatures).

I often hear people saying that "this creature can't feel pain", or "that creature doesn't have a nervous system", or "they die the moment they hit the water", or something to those effects, yet, in all of the live-cook videos I've seen; the crabs, octopi, or whichever unfortunate soul is on the menu, certainly do appear to be writhing around a lot, and trying to get as far away from the heat as they can, even though they're starting to lose the functioning of their limbs and such, and to me, this is not the behaviour I would expect to see from an animal that 'can't feel pain', or 'doesn't have a nervous system'. To me, it sounds more like some cop-out lie that someone casually told their kid one time, and it just stuck.

To me, there's no question that throwing a live animal into a pot of boiling water is beyond cruel, but it seems apparent in the videos that there is a certain lack of empathy towards the animal, and in their final moments, they are not treated with dignity or compassion.

We should end the barbaric practice of live-cooking animals, because it's not right, it's not necessary, it's cruel, and seems to be more about having some kind of sick desire for power-over that animal, than it is about having something to eat that day. This *HAS TO* Stop.

Please don't support the live-cook animal industry. Remember, you vote with your dollars, so you *can* make a difference.

I want to take the time to thank you for reading, and I welcome your feedback in the comments.

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