Recently, the Swiss government has enacted a law banning the common culinary practice of boiling lobsters alive.
The crustacean delicacy will continue being served in restaurants all across the country, except that starting this March when the new regulations go into effect, restauranteurs are now expected to be in full compliance with government directives requiring that lobsters be stunned before being cooked, or otherwise killed instantly prior to boiling.
I feel this law is a tricky one: on the one hand, it could easily lead to wasteful government spending at the taxpayer's expense, by forcing restaurants to get some form of official document issued by a central authority certifying they are in compliance with the new law, or perhaps by forcing businesses to send their employees to tax subsidized training courses on how to prepare lobster in a more humane way.
Governments are experts at misusing public funds, so the two situations outlined above seem like a definite possibility.
This ban is also an infringement of its citizens' right to free choice, in that it limits what food products the population is or isn't allowed to consume.
On the other hand, given the lobster's advanced nervous system and a capacity for feeling pain, the widespread practice of boiling the animal alive does seem like something taken straight out of an ISIS propaganda video, and perhaps the sort of barbaric ritual we as a species should condemn as needlessly inhumane.
Assuming this particular piece of legislation wasn't drafted unilaterally by bureaucrats, and that it instead reflects the consensus amongst the population, then maybe something good could come out of this ban.
What do you guys think? Do you believe we need animal cruelty laws like this one, or do you think this is just another case of a controlling government playing nanny to its citizens?
As for me, I'm genuinely torn on this one! All I know is that I find myself cutting back on meat and animal products more and more these days. In fact, I see that many prominent anarcho-capitalists on Steemit happen to be vegan or vegetarian, which I suppose is consistent with the non-aggression principle.
I guess it's true that an anarchist mindset and veganism really do go hand in hand!
