Press Releases & Press Statements
07 August 2024
Animal welfare organisation Crustacean Compassion has hit out at the UK seafood industry over new voluntary codes of practice released last week, which fail to protect crabs, lobsters and prawns from agonising injuries and deaths.
25 March 2024
Award winning animal welfare organisation Crustacean Compassion is urging supermarkets to commit to a permanent ban on the live sale of lobsters and crabs as part of minimal welfare commitments in the wake of its recent Snapshot report.
17 January 2024
Shoppers can now see which supermarkets and food producers care about the welfare of sentient animals such as crabs, lobsters, and prawns, with the publication of a groundbreaking report released today.
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1 November 2023
Crustacean Compassion has announced a new Chair of the board who has taken over from one of its founding members to head a newly expanded board.
25 Jan 2023
Crustacean Compassion’s industry benchmark, ‘The Snapshot’ finds that decapod crustacean welfare is advancing up the business agenda – but there’s more work to be done on effective implementation of policies.
12 Jan 2023
This inaugural benchmark on decapod crustacean welfare has been designed to objectively assess leading seafood producers, processors and retailers in the UK. Its findings provide companies, consumers and other stakeholders with a clear account of current practices, highlighting areas where progress is being made as well as areas where improvement is needed.
23 Dec 2022
Following comments made by Prue Leith on ITV’s Lorraine regarding the method of killing a live lobster, Crustacean Compassion would like to highlight the unethical and inhumane practice of “stab[bing] it in the head".
12 Oct 2022
Animal protection campaigners have visited Downing Street today to deliver a letter to Prime Minister Liz Truss calling for greater protection for decapod crustaceans like crabs, prawns, lobsters, and nephrops. They were joined by Larry the cat who appears to support the cause!
07 April 2022
A monumental step for animal welfare was taken today (7 April 2022) in the House of Lords as the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill passed through its final stages to become law. The passing of this Bill is a historic moment for animal welfare as it marks the first-time animals like crabs, lobsters, prawns and nephrops (decapod crustaceans) are protected in law.
07 December 2021
It’s rare to hear about cross-party consensus in UK politics. However this has happened today [Monday] in the House of Lords and in relation to an unusual topic - crabs and lobsters.
The ten-legged crustaceans were discussed at length, with Lords agreeing to support a government amendment to declare that these animals are sentient creatures, with the ability to feel pain.
19 November 2021
Crustacean Compassion, the leading organisation campaigning for the humane treatment of decapod crustaceans (animals such as crabs, lobsters and prawns), welcomes the findings of a research project commissioned by the UK government which has been released today. This ground-breaking project reviewed the evidence for sentience in decapod crustaceans and cephalopod molluscs (a group including octopus and squid). Sentience is the capacity to experience feelings such as pain.
6 July 2021
Snappily dressed shellfish campaigners gathered outside the House of Lords today as Peers put forward amendments[i] to the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill to recognise that crabs and lobsters can feel pain. The move could see these animals given new legal protections, and means that restaurants and fishmongers could be banned from boiling crabs alive or sending live lobsters through the post.
14 February 2018
Michael Gove was presented with a petition today signed by over 35,000 people calling on Defra to “Show Lobsters Some Love”. The petition was presented as a giant Valentine’s Day card for Gove to sign in his capacity as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It was presented by Crustacean Compassion, the animal welfare organisation calling for the protection of decapod crustaceans such as crabs and lobsters in UK law, today (14 February)...
17 February 2017
Despite a marked increase in scientific evidence about the ability of decapod crustaceans to feel pain and suffer, there has been no government assessment of their welfare and no increase in protections for animals like crabs and lobsters, which in some shocking instances has resulted in them being left fully immobilised in plastic shrink-wrap on supermarket shelves in the UK...
