ZURICH (Reuters) - Switzerland has banned the common culinary practice of throwing fresh lobsters into boiling water as part of an overhaul of its animal protection rules. 
 
 “Live crustaceans, including the lobster, may no longer be transported on ice or in ice water. Aquatic species must always be kept in their natural environment. Crustaceans must now be stunned before killing them,” say the rules adopted by the government on Wednesday that will take effect in March. 
 
 The regulations also aim to crack down on illegal puppy farms, outlaw automatic devices that punish dogs for barking, spell out conditions for putting down sick or injured animals, and make organizers responsible for animal welfare at public events. 
 
 The Swiss are not alone in trying to protect lobsters from what activists call cruel treatment in the kitchen. 
 
 Neighboring Italy’s highest court ruled in June that lobsters must not be kept on ice in restaurants because it causes them unjustifiable suffering before they head for death by fine dining. ||||| A new animal protection law in Switzerland requires that lobsters be stunned before being cooked. 
 
 Animal rights activists and some scientists argue that lobsters' central nervous systems are complex enough that they can feel pain. 
 
 There is no conclusive evidence about whether lobsters can feel pain. 
 
 People are more sensitive about killing lobsters than other animals. 
 
 Few diners cringe at the thought of a fish slowly suffocating to death, for instance, but there is considerable more stress associated with dropping Maine's icon into a pot of boiling water. 
 
 In Switzerland, a new animal protection law that will take effect in March requires that lobsters be stunned before they are killed. 
 
 But the research on whether or not these creatures feel pain is still inconclusive. 
 
 The Lobster Institute in Maine argues that the lobster's primitive nervous system is most similar to the nervous system of an insect. And while lobsters react to sudden stimulus, like twitching their tails when placed in boiling water, the institute suggests that they do not have complex brains that allow them to process pain like humans and other animals do. 
 
 "Cooking a lobster is like cooking a big bug," said Robert Bayer, executive director of the Lobster Institute. He added: "Do you have the same concern when you kill a fly or a mosquito?" 
 
 In 2014, a scientist from Queen's University in Belfast argued that lobsters and other crustaceans probably do feel pain, on the grounds that crabs in a study learned to avoid a hideaway where they were repeatedly given an electric shock. 
 
 A Norwegian study from 2005 concluded the opposite: lobsters do not have brains, so they do not feel pain. 
 
 However, most consumers still don't see it that way. 
 
 Lobsters inspire more compassion than chicken, pigs, or other fish because it is one of the few foods that urbanites have to kill themselves when cooking. 
 
 In 2006, Whole Foods banned the sale of live lobsters and crabs in its stores — with the exception of those in Maine — citing that transporting, storing, and cooking live animals was inhumane. In 2013, a video released by PETA that showed live lobsters being ripped apart by hand at a Maine processor again struck a chord with animal rights groups. 
 
 We will never know how the lobster feels. That's why the Lobster Institute focuses on ways to cook lobster so that "it minimizes our own trauma," said Bayer. 
 
 He suggested putting the lobster in either fresh cold water or chilling it in the freezer (without freezing it) before cooking. Both methods, according to Bayer, will "put the lobster to sleep." 
 
 One Maine processor uses an 80,000-pound machine called the "Big Mother Shucker" to kill lobsters in just six seconds using high water pressure. 
 
 Another option is the CrustaStun, a device that home chefs can purchase for several thousand dollars to "zap lobster's nervous system in one jolt," said Trevor Corson, author of "The Secret Life of Lobsters." 
 
 A large kitchen knife will also make for a quick death when cooks hold the lobster upside down and slice it in half from the tail to the head. Corson provides step-by-step instructions for this method on his blog. 
 
 As for the most humane way to kill a lobster, "there's no absolute answer," said Bayer. It's based on what we perceive as pain or perhaps hear as "screams," even if those sounds are just the steam escaping the lobster's shell. ||||| It’s commendable that people do not want to inflict pain on animals, but this one is definitely false on the first account (screaming) and probably false on the second (pain). 
 
 As for the “scream,” there’s the problem that lobsters have no throat, no vocal cords, no lungs, so how could they scream at all? The fact is that the noise is caused by air trapped in the shell. When heated it expands and forces itself out through small gaps, causing the sound – sort of like when you force air out between your tightly clenched lips to make a rude sound. 
 
 What about pain? No one can know for sure what a lobster or similar critter feels, but we can make educated guesses based on what we know about pain in other animals, specifically humans. And I am talking specifically about pain, not discomfort or unpleasantness. Pain doesn’t just happen automatically—it is the result of specific receptors, nerve pathways, and brain regions all cooperating to convert certain physical stimuli into the perception of pain. This has all been thoroughly worked out in humans and other vertebrates. But guess what—lobsters and other crustaceans are not vertebrates and simply do not have these nerve pathways and brain regions (they don’t have a real brain at all, for that matter). In other words, no brain, no pain (sorry, I couldn’t resist that one!). 
 
 This does not mean that lobsters and similar animals do not feel anything, and it does not mean that there some stimuli they would rather avoid. These aspects of lobster and crab behavior are well established. But, that’s very different from feeling pain. 
 
 Can we know for absolutely positively 100% sure that lobsters don’t feel pain? No, because there’s no way for us to directly experience what they do and do not feel. That should not stop us from making educated guesses. I feel pretty sure that eyeless cave fish cannot see, and I have no doubt that you would feel pretty much the same pain that I would if you touch a hot stove, even though I cannot directly experience what the cave fish or you experience. I don’t have proof that the cave fish does not see or that you feel pain, but I am pretty confident that these things are true. 
 
 So, if you are worried about lobsters feeling pain, don’t eat ’em—but please, don’t nag the rest of us. 
 
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 Government bans the practice of plunging live lobsters into boiling water amid fears the animals can feel pain 
 
 The Swiss government has ordered an end to the common culinary practice of throwing lobsters into boiling water while they are still alive, ruling that they must be knocked out before they are killed. 
 
 
 
 As part of a wider overhaul of Swiss animal protection laws, Bern said that as of 1 March, “the practice of plunging live lobsters into boiling water, which is common in restaurants, is no longer permitted”. 
 
 Shock lobster: ghostly, translucent crustacean caught off Maine coast Read more 
 
 Lobsters “will now have to be stunned before they are put to death,” the government order read. 
 
 According to Swiss public broadcaster RTS, only electric shock or the “mechanical destruction” of the lobster’s brain will be accepted methods of stunning the animals once the new rule takes affect. 
 
 Animal rights advocates and some scientists argue that lobsters and other crustaceans have sophisticated nervous systems and likely feel significant pain when boiled alive. 
 
 The Swiss government also said it would no longer be permitted to transport live marine crustaceans like lobsters on ice or in icy water, ruling instead that they should “always be held in their natural environment”. 
 
 The government order also aims to crack down on illegal puppy farms and imports, and ban devices that automatically punish dogs when they bark. 
 
 Organisers of public events featuring animals will also be directly responsible for their welfare when the new rules take effect, the government order said.
– Lobsters may not actually scream when they're placed live into pots of boiling water (they don't have vocal cords), but the jury's still out on whether they feel pain. Switzerland isn't taking chances, issuing a government decree that "the practice of plunging live lobsters into boiling water, which is common in restaurants, is no longer permitted," the AFP reports. The crustaceans will have to be "stunned" first, either via electric shock or the "mechanical destruction" of the lobster's brain, per Radio Television Suisse. Transporters of live lobsters will also be required to carry them around "in their natural environment," not on ice or in super-cold water. Reuters notes the new rules, adopted Wednesday, will take effect in March. Animal rights activists have long argued that lobsters, crabs, and other shellfish are able to feel pain, and there's been some evidence to back that claim up. In a 2013 study in the Journal of Experimental Biology cited by US News, for example, crabs stayed away from areas of their tanks that delivered electric shocks. The research is still deemed "inconclusive," though many scientists say it's "highly likely" the creatures feel pain, even if it's yet to be conclusively proven. The new Swiss lobster laws are part of an overall overhaul of the country's animal protection rules. Also included in the revamp are new regulations going after illegal puppy farms, detailing how to humanely euthanize sick or hurt animals, and putting the onus for animal welfare at public events on the event's organizers. (A century-old lobster was saved from the pot at the last minute.)