We value your privacy, so we only use essential cookies to make this site work, plus additional cookies to improve it over time. We never share these with third parties other than for these reasons.

Accept all cookies Reject non-essential cookies

Manage cookies

Welfare at Time of Killing

Welfare at Time of Killing

Send my email

Decapod crustaceans are recognised in law as sentient since the passage of the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022, which came into force two years ago. This means that decapods like lobsters and crabs experience pain and suffering just like other sentient animals.  

Decapods have very little protection, one area they have protection is under the Welfare at Time of Killing (England) Regulations 2015 (WATOK). Anyone killing any animal must have the appropriate training and must do so in a way which does not cause unnecessary suffering. Recent data released by London Boroughs to Crustacean Compassion under the Freedom of Information Act show that the enforcement of these regulations is patchy at best – with many Councils not even realising they have any enforcement duties. 

Parliament has confirmed that local authorities have a duty to enforce these regulations, yet live lobsters and crabs are being sold in London markets and shops to be killed at home by untrained people. It can take 4 to 8 minutes for a lobster to die when boiled alive.

Crustacean Compassion believes that these regulations are too complex and make it difficult for both enforcement agencies and the public to understand. That is why we are launching a new campaign and calling for an end to the live sale of decapod crustaceans to the public. We wouldn’t expect people to be able to buy any other live animal within your borough to kill at home and we are asking for equal protection for decapods.  

We are also asking every London Borough to instigate a policy of not allowing live animals to be sold on council-owned land for consumption. Many councils already have an animal welfare charter to safeguard animal welfare and ban cruel practices, where this could be included, potentially saving many animals from dying a painful death.

Together let’s stop the live sales of decapods to the public.

Decapod crustaceans are recognised in law as sentient since the passage of the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022, which came into force two years ago. This means that decapods like lobsters and crabs experience pain and suffering just like other sentient animals.  

Decapods have very little protection, one area they have protection is under the Welfare at Time of Killing (England) Regulations 2015 (WATOK). Anyone killing any animal must have the appropriate training and must do so in a way which does not cause unnecessary suffering. Recent data released by London Boroughs to Crustacean Compassion under the Freedom of Information Act show that the enforcement of these regulations is patchy at best – with many Councils not even realising they have any enforcement duties. 

Parliament has confirmed that local authorities have a duty to enforce these regulations, yet live lobsters and crabs are being sold in London markets and shops to be killed at home by untrained people. It can take 4 to 8 minutes for a lobster to die when boiled alive.

Crustacean Compassion believes that these regulations are too complex and make it difficult for both enforcement agencies and the public to understand. That is why we are launching a new campaign and calling for an end to the live sale of decapod crustaceans to the public. We wouldn’t expect people to be able to buy any other live animal within your borough to kill at home and we are asking for equal protection for decapods.  

We are also asking every London Borough to instigate a policy of not allowing live animals to be sold on council-owned land for consumption. Many councils already have an animal welfare charter to safeguard animal welfare and ban cruel practices, where this could be included, potentially saving many animals from dying a painful death.

Together let’s stop the live sales of decapods to the public.

Email the Leader of the Council

2. Enter your details

3. Make your email count

How we use the data you enter on this form

If you subscribe to our email updates, we'll keep you up to date with campaign news, appeals and ways you can take action to protect decapod crustaceans.

You can unsubscribe at any time by contacting [email protected]

Information about how we protect your details can be found in our privacy policy.

Do Gooder (the advocacy platform powering this online action) processes personal information from you that you enter on this form so that we can provide the functions and related services to you and The Campaigner (the organisation responsible for this online action) for their legitimate purposes, including possibly exporting it to other systems, and to effectively respond to enquiries and communications related to those services.

Specifically when you enter:

  • Your location data (residential address or postcode) it is used to locate your elected representative, to pre-populate your email signature and to provide The Campaigner with a visualisation of the location of the support for this campaign.

  • All other data you may enter, including your email address, name, telephone number, commentary and so on is used by The Campaigner to advocate for the campaign’s goals and where required may be sent to the target of the campaign.

  • If your support is shown on a public facing map your first name and approximate location (within a 1x1km square area) will be shown. If you uploaded a photo as part of an action that may be shown also.

The data collected by Do Gooder is also used by us in aggregate form to improve the service and may be held on your behalf outside your country of residence by our third party service providers. These providers are bound by contract to only use personal information on our behalf, in accordance with agreed terms. While the privacy laws of the country in which personal information is stored or transferred may be different from those in your country, we will always have safeguards in place when storing or transferring personal information. We will never sell, rent, loan or in any other way pass your information on to other parties other than to provide this service to you and The Campaigner.

The personal information collected by Do Gooder is held subject to a Data Processing Agreement between Do Gooder and The Campaigner in compliance with the EU's GDPR and Australian law.

Learn more about our privacy policy here

How is my data used?