Steneck discusses whether lobsters feel pain with The World

The World, a public radio global news program, interviewed Robert Steneck about whether lobsters feel pain. Steneck, a professor of marine sciences at the University of Maine, spoke to the program for a segment about British lawmakers considering including invertebrates in a new animal welfare bill that would ban live-lobster boiling. Steneck said determining whether reactions from lobsters are prompted by pain or simple reflex is difficult. “The nervous system of lobsters is more similar to that of a grasshopper than it is of a human,” he said. “My sense has always been that for organisms with higher cognitive capacity, you feel pain so that you can learn and remember and avoid it in the future.”