A city couple have collected more than 300 names on a petition that seeks a ban on the sale of live lobsters in Stratford.
Cody Sebben and Caitlin Beaudry feel the practice is inhumane, along with the usual method of killing a lobster -- which is boiling it alive.
When kept in tanks they may suffer from stress associated with confinement, low oxygen levels and crowding, says the petition, which notes scientists have found that lobsters feel pain.
The petition refers to researcher Gordon Gunter's view, as reported in the journal Science several years ago, that the boiling alive of a lobster is “unnecessary torture.”
“Ideally we would want the tanks (in supermarkets) completely removed,” said Beaudry. “If it could result in a CrustaStun that would be next best.”
The reference is to a device that applies a numbing electric shock for instant killing before the creatures are cooked.
Sebben and Beaudry, who are in their mid 20s, decided to take action on the lobster issue after discussions with others around lobster tanks where people were expressing views similar to their own.