A NEW bill aimed at protecting animals from cruelty could see the end of boiling lobsters alive.
The UK government's new Animal Welfare Sentience Bill would declare invertebrates such as lobsters, crabs and octopuses as sentient beings who can feel pain.
Campaigners believe that stunning the lobster or freezing them in cold air before they are cooked is a more humane death.
Before the legislation gets approved, the government is consulting with the restaurant and food industry to see if they have any other strategies that could work.
Brighton has many restaurants that serve lobster, and they could potentially have to change the way they prepare the crustaceans for eating.
At the seafood restaurant English's of Brighton in East Street, the chefs have been stunning the lobsters before boiling them for the previous five years.
Andre Pienaar, the general manager, said: "It is something that has been bubbling under the surface for many years now.
"We made the decision five years ago to stun all of these animals before killing them because it has been a humane issue for quite a long time.
"We are one hundred per cent in support of humane killing, and we have not been boiling animals alive for many years now. It is kinder on the animal.
"Stunning them first and then boiling them has absolutely no effect on the taste or flavour of the meat.
"If there is a humane issue involved and the change does not affect the taste, then everyone should be practising humane killing."
To make sure the lobster is killed humanely, the chefs put them into freezing temperatures for at least 20 minutes.
This stuns the animal and therefore stops it from being in pain when it is boiled.
A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said: "We're proud to have some of the highest animal welfare standards in the world and we are fully committed to strengthening them further to ensure all animals avoid any unnecessary pain, distress or suffering.
"We have commissioned an independent external review of the available scientific evidence and will carefully consider the results of this review."
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