The Iron Ring

I’ve heard quite a bit in the past few days regarding whether or not lobsters can feel pain and I feel I would like to weigh in. Most pieces (http://abcnews.go.com/Health/PainManagement/story?id=722163&page=1) quote a study completed in Norway that claimed that lobsters could not feel pain, whereas various members of PETA and other animal rights groups claimed that of course they could.

I am more interested in why it is that we came to discuss the lobster specifically. How is it that after years of boiling them alive in our kitchens, or picking them out individually in novelty tanks in restaurants, it is now time to examine their nervous system? Is Cape Cod the Chicago of our 2006 version of the Jungle? Has anyone ever doubted the ability of cows or chickens to feel pain, and if not, how is that the slaughterhouses are denied the headlines?

I realize that when it comes to animal rights activists, the line is clear and easily crossed. But I am more curious in the average meat eater, how is it that we justify the killing of some animals over others? Lab research is a good example. When it comes to mice and rats, the average person has come to assume they are a staple of the modern medical lab but mention higher creatures; such as dogs, cats, monkeys, and the public cringes.

Where is does our moral compass draw the line? What makes us inherently more merciful towards some species rather than others?

# posted by Sarah : 10:28 PM