"Humane" restaurant make stoning lobsters before cooking

Some might argue that the most humane thing to do with a lobster would be to not eat it.

A restaurant in the United States takes another approach to be merciful: it kills crustaceans before steaming them.

"The animal is already going to be killed," says Charlotte Gill, owner of Charlotte's legendary "Lobster Pound," in the town of Southwest Harbor, Maine. "It is much more humane to make it a more enjoyable passage."

The idea is that the creature, who has just had marijuana smoke in his water, is under pressure to the point of feeling much less pain during cooking.

The restaurant claims to have perfected this technique this year – partly to make sure no cannabis residues get into the meat – and hopes all customers will go with next season.

"I feel bad when lobsters arrive here, there is no exit strategy," Gill said at the Mount Desert Islander website. "It's a unique place and you can do unique things, but at the expense of that little creature. I've really tried to find ways to make it better.

In other parts of the world, where it is forbidden to boil alive, electrocution or stabbing in the brain are used to kill animals before cooking.

But Ms. Gill – who holds a license to grow marijuana for medical purposes – was not imagining it either.

"These are two horrible options – if we are going to take a life, we have the responsibility to do it as humanly as possible," she said before adding that, anyway, a happier lobster was a lobster more tasty.

«La différence que cela fait dans la viande elle-même est incroyable», a-t-elle déclaré. “Tout ce que vous mettez dans votre corps est de l'énergie.”