Shellfish feel pain a new study shows

GlobalPost

Shellfish like crabs, shrimps and lobsters feel pain a new study shows.

Researchers at Queens University in Belfast said that it is impossible to say definitively if any animal feels pain if they cannot speak or make sounds.

However, both present and past research suggest that they might actually feel tremendous pain.

The study used ninety crabs introduced individually to a tank containing two dark shelters, reported NPR.

The crabs were added slowly into the tank with some going into one shelter and others into another.

One of the shelters gave the crabs an electric shock while the other did not.

More from GlobalPostAustralian amateur prospector digs up massive gold nugget near Ballarat

After two or three trials most crabs chose to avoid the shelter that shocked them and instead migrated to the safer one.

“On a philosophical point, it is impossible to demonstrate absolutely that an animal experiences pain,” study co-author Bob Elwood wrote in a press release, said the Guardian.

“However, various criteria have been suggested regarding what we would expect if pain were to be experienced. The research at Queen’s has tested those criteria and the data is consistent with the idea of pain.

He went on to say: "We conclude that there is a strong probability of pain and the need to consider the welfare of these animals.”

The latest findings were published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

Sign up for our daily newsletter

Sign up for The Top of the World, delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.