Restaurant Loses Its Stomach for Agonized, Writhing Live Food

I've always found the idea of death by fire to be gruesomely horrific. Still, I guess I can imagine how some diners could push aside thoughts of creatures struggling to escape vats of boiling water, thrashing to crawl off a hot grill or writhing in agony as their limbs are chopped off bit by bit ... After all, it's all in the name of a gourmet meal, right? Out of sight, out of mind, right? ... Right?

What I simply can't wrap my head around at all, however, is the idea of diners digging into living beings writhing in pain on their plates — but that's exactly what was happening at one California restaurant, before PETA stepped in to point out the cruelty the owners were serving up.

Nishiki Sushi in Sacramento has informed PETA that it will no longer serve live shrimp, a Japanese delicacy called "dancing prawns." The dish's name refers to the frantic writhing of the shrimp after their protective shells are ripped off and diners squeeze acidic lemon juice across their bodies in order to make them "dance."

Let's get real. Crustaceans like lobsters, shrimp and prawns don't feel pain, right? In fact, the most recent studies show that they very definitely do. Okay ... But they feel pain "differently" than we do, right? (I'm getting the feeling that "right" is shorthand for some sort of popular justification ... Right?) Again: No, they don't. Pain allows a living creature to be "aware of the potential tissue damage" while experiencing "a huge negative emotion or motivation that it learns to avoid that situation in the future," according to biologist Robert Elwood of  School of The Queen's University in Belfast. And crustaceans suffering dismemberment and boiled or grilled alive most definitely fall into that category.

Ultimately, it all boils down to whether or not diners can stomach cruelty literally served up on a steaming platter. Even if they manage to ignore (or disagree with) the fact that the animals do in fact feel pain, how is this sort of thing enjoyable? How do diners come to blithely ignore or — still more horrifying — even delight in the struggles of the creatures they're about to ingest? Causing frantic living beings to writhe in pain and then savoring the act of devouring them at this cruel peak ... How can that experience possibly be "delicious?" It's a question that some days, I simply don't have the stomach to consider; thank goodness there'll be a few fewer stomachs in the world now being filled by this cruel, inhumane entertainment.

Photo credit: Jayneandd