About Us

The Shellfish Network was formed by Joe Solomon in 1994 to campaign peacefully against cruelty to these animals. Standard cooking methods are to boil, steam, grill or cut up while they are alive and fully conscious. It is a much-neglected subject compared with other issues of animal abuse. Though relatively 'humane' techniques for stunning crabs and lobsters before cooking have been put forward by animal welfare organisations, and further research is being updated, these techniques are not required by law in Britain or, to our knowledge, in any EU country. As far as we know, New Zealand is the only country with any such laws.

Through leaflet distribution and use of the media, we have gone some way towards raising public awareness, and we were active in the widespread protest which caused Waitrose and Tesco to abandon plans to sell live lobsters. More recently, supporting the Animal Aid protest, our members have also helped to stop Makro from live lobster sales. While People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and other Animal Rights groups include shellfish in their campaigns, we believe that we are the only organisation to give a consistently high profile to the suffering of shellfish. But they still remain at or near the bottom of the league-table of public sympathy!

Some time ago we ran a national petition calling on the UK Government to ban the exploitation of shellfish for human consumption and to press for this at European Union level. We gained over 7,000 signatures which were handed in to the then Ministry of Fisheries & the Countryside (now Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, DEFRA), in April 1999. The petition is continuing to gain signatures. We later had a positive meeting with the Ministry and they are in the process of putting our information on their website. However, there is still no further legislation regarding shellfish welfare.