Before Christmas, my wife and I were at FoodLand Ala Moana to complete our grocery shopping for the Christmas Eve dinner.
We approached the Fish Counter to buy a tray of shrimp and we saw lobsters bound laying on the ice, slowly moving their antennas and looking around with their eyes as if they hoped to be freed. They were alive.
A deep sadness grabbed my heart. Immediately, my wife and I walked to the Customer Service and I explained the issue: the attendant suggested to talk with the Manager. The Manager came and I explained again the issue of the inhumanity keeping live bound animals on ice, and she responded with a very low level of care, telling me I have to get in touch with the General Customer Service and she gave me a yellow post-in with a phone number handwritten.
In Europe, and specifically in Italy and Switzerland, from 2014 there are several Court sentences and 2017 law requirements to ban the storage of live animals at temperatures near and below 32F (Zero Celsius), display live animals on ice and cook live animals. All those procedures have been considered pure cruelty against animals and prosecuted with fines and imprisonment in some cases.
Many studies proved that lobsters and crabs feel pain and have memory of that. This situation at the end of their live is just adding unnecessary cruelty.
Are we in Hawaii so uncivilized to ignore this very simple rule of compassion?
