Legislation
Decapod crustaceans fall outside the scope of European animal protection law. Here is the global picture, the European framework, and what the Italian courts have held.
The global picture
The protection granted to decapod crustaceans in the legal systems of Europe and Oceania analysed in ALI’s report “Decapod crustaceans: between law and science”.
Legend
Switzerland: Principle-level provisions and detailed rules to minimise the suffering of decapod crustaceans at national level
Austria, Norway: Principle-level provisions to minimise the suffering of decapod crustaceans at national level
Australia: Principle-level provisions to minimise the suffering of decapod crustaceans at the level of federated states and territories
United Kingdom: Explicit recognition of decapod crustaceans as sentient beings. No principle-level provisions or detailed rules to minimise their suffering at national level
Italy: Principle-level provisions and detailed rules to minimise the suffering of decapod crustaceans in some municipal territories
*European Union level: excluded from the scope of the legislation protecting animals used in the food industry.
The countries that have introduced specific protections for decapod crustaceans used in the food industry are: Italy, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Norway, Australia and New Zealand. These protections were introduced in response to the many practices decapod crustaceans are subjected to globally, across all stages of production: capture or farming, holding, transport and killing.
Switzerland and New Zealand stand out as the countries with the strictest rules protecting decapod crustaceans; both have precise rules to minimise these animals’ suffering across the various stages of production. As for Austria and Norway, although several regulations mention decapod crustaceans, they merely list rules to minimise the animals’ death or injury, in most cases without precise, practical provisions for their protection.
Although the United Kingdom has indeed explicitly declared the sentience of decapod crustaceans, these animals enjoy no practical protection across the various stages of production. In Italy, the regulatory situation is fragmented and confused: the resulting framework is wholly inadequate to guarantee a uniform level of protection for decapod crustaceans, and there is no unified national legislation protecting these animals.
The analysis of rules protecting decapod crustaceans in several countries shows that — especially in the case of Switzerland and New Zealand — rules reducing these animals’ suffering across the various stages of production can be drafted and applied. Given the recent studies demonstrating these animals’ sentience and capacity to feel pain, it is urgent and essential that the law set binding guidelines, based on up-to-date scientific parameters, introducing minimum standards to protect these animals across capture, production and marketing.
European legislation
Even though the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) itself has recognised decapod crustaceans as sentient beings, to this day these animals enjoy no protection under European law.
Regulation (EC) No 1099/2009 lays down the rules to follow when killing animals, with the aim of minimising their suffering. However, its definition of ‘animals’ entirely excludes aquatic animals other than fish — for which the protections provided are in any case ineffective, insufficient and inadequate. As a result, rules such as those requiring stunning before killing do not apply, and there are no provisions detailing which killing techniques should be used to ensure these animals suffer as little as possible.
Similarly, Regulation (EC) No 1/2005 lays down the rules to follow when transporting live animals; however, under the regulation’s definition, ‘animals’ means vertebrates only, thereby excluding decapod crustaceans from its scope and from the protections it offers.
Decapod crustaceans are thus entirely excluded from the scope of European legislation, remaining effectively without protection in Italy as well. This means they can fall victim to practices that severely harm their welfare, such as wounds and mutilations during capture, confinement in cramped spaces and out of water — at temperatures well below or above what they can tolerate — and, finally, killing in ways that cause enormous suffering, such as being dismembered or boiled alive.
The situation in Italy
In Italy, keeping crustaceans in conditions incompatible with their nature and causing severe suffering can, in principle, constitute a criminal offence.
Although the law does not protect these animals, courts have long recognised the need to protect them from treatment in open conflict with their nature.
Court of Cassation, 2017 — Florence
On 17 January 2017 the Court of Cassation (Cass. Pen., Sez. III, no. 27173/2016) rejected the appeal brought against a ruling of the Court of Florence that had sentenced a restaurant manager to a fine of €5,000.00, plus €3,000.00 in damages to the civil party, for keeping live crustaceans in a cold room with their claws bound — that is, in conditions incompatible with their nature and causing severe suffering. This case is an important precedent for the protection of decapod crustaceans in Italy, as it established that certain conditions in which these animals are kept are at odds with the protection of their welfare and may constitute a criminal offence.
Milan, 2019
The 2017 case did not remain isolated. On 13 May 2019, following reports from customers, OIPA’s volunteer animal-protection officers visited a restaurant on the eastern outskirts of Milan, where they found a lobster still alive, with its claws bound, in a plastic tray placed on ice inside a refrigerator. Prosecutor Sara Arduini requested a fine of €2,000.00, which the restaurateur challenged, requesting probation instead. The judge therefore ordered three months of community service at one of the shelters run by the City Angels, a group of street volunteers helping the homeless and people in need.
These two court cases show that, although the Court of Cassation has already established that keeping these animals on ice constitutes an offence, Italy still lacks a national law that effectively protects these animals from treatment incompatible with their nature.
Sign the petition
We are asking Italian lawmakers for four concrete measures to protect decapod crustaceans.