Don't Eat the Crab in Shanghai

I saw the most horrifying thing on TV the other night.  I was so disturbed I actually lept off the chair and lunged for the off-switch on the TV itself, because I knew changing the channel on that particular TV set would take too long and I wanted it gone.  I couldn't bear to see one more image and I wanted it gone.

It was a cooking show.

I came into it part way through, so I'm a bit hazy on the details.  It was, I think, Singaporean, and involved a TV chef from Singapore doing the whole "chef on tour" thing in Shanghai.  When I came into the show he was buying crabs in a local market and talking about one of his favourite crab dishes, which is made with lots of chili.

We then went to the restaurant kitchen of a local chef and watched him (the local chef) prepare the meal.  He prized the top shell off the crab and started scrubbing the exposed muscles with a stiff brush under running water to clean it.  So far, not too horrific, right?

Then the TV chef asked him why it was so important that the crab should be alive while he was cleaning it...

And suddenly I realised what they were doing.  They had ripped the shell (skin and backbone combined) off a live crab and were in the process of brutally torturing it - quite without care or remorse - all because they think it has better texture if it is "cleaned" this way.

I couldn't stand to watch it for one more second.

Every day of the week, we do a hundred thousand horrible, painful things to the creatures with whom we share this planet.  We do it because we are big and clumsy and not paying attention.  You can't walk through this earth without causing death and pain.

However, we should never - NEVER - cause avoidable pain and suffering to another living being just because it tastes better.

It is reprehensible and wrong, and whatever gods you believe in will surely punish you for that.  The more extreme the pain, and the more avoidable it is, the more you deserve a slow and painful retribution.

When I visited Hong Kong I thought the way the Chinese kept live animals in their markets (the cramped, dirty cages with chickens that were clearly freaking out; the shallow Styrofoam boxes containing a few inches of water that didn't quite cover the gasping fish...) was an absolute disgrace . This was just...  Unspeakably wrong.

You don't flay something alive.  You don't rake stiff brushes over living, exposed muscles.  Surely anyone could see that was cruel and wrong?  What is wrong with these people that they think this is okay?

If you want to eat something, you catch it and then you kill it as quickly and humanely as you can.  Otherwise every second of torture that animal experiences is one that makes you more of a monster.

I have a feeling I'll be going vegetarian if I ever go back to Asia.


For the record, I'm not a big fan of a lot of Australian practices when it comes to food production, either.  Live exports are not good for the animals, or for your soul.  Battery farming is very bad.

I think every culture in the world would greatly benefit from a decision to cause less pain.