Sir, - I was surprised and shocked to read John Fitzgerald's letter regarding the above (June 8th) not because of its content, of which I was already aware, but by the fact that an eminent person like Mr Fitzgerald, holding, as he does, an honorary position in a body which professes to abhor cruelty to animals, continued to partake of lobster, oblivious, apparently, to the methods of preparation of this "delicacy".
Well, late awareness is, I suppose, better than non-awareness, and if this correspondence saves one crustacean from a torture-filled demise, it will have been worthwhile. Reading between the lines of his letter, I perceive that Mr Fitzgerald hopes to avoid future attacks of conscience by only eating lobster in restaurants which have electrocuted his favourite food prior to its being boiled alive, presuming that this would be a "painless" death. Not so, unfortunately. Electrocution paralyses the body's automatic reflexes, causing death, generally in around a minute to a minute and a half, by asphyxiation. In the interim, absence of reflexes does not mean absence of life, nor, indeed, suffering.
No, I'm afraid that the only way to avoid cruelty to lobsters .. . is simply to stop eating lobsters. - Yours, etc., D. K. Henderson,
Clontarf,
Dublin 3.