HCA: Hermit Crab Association

http://www.sciencedaily.com/ar...es/h/h ... b.htmFound these while researching for a project. Thought it was interesting if you scroll down and click the side-stories.

The article of how they found out crabs feel pain angered me.

I didnt want to even read that one, so I didnt, I will now.

THAT IS VERY SAD!!! :_C That's practically animal abuse!

I find it interesting that we all managed to come to the same conclusions by observing them in their 'natural' habitats as the 'scientists' did with electroshock torture.I mean, does anyone here NOT think that they experience pain and discomfort on a cerebral level after watching the things they do to soothe an irritated abdomen?

It's possible that their nervous systems are too simple to process pain or suffering. And the reactions we "perceive" as pain are really automatic motor responses.See this article on whether lobsters feel pain:http://abcnews.go.com/Health/P...&page= ... vn4Zl8EI'm not arguing one way or the other. I'm just saying that our observations don't necessarily draw complete conclusions, because there's multiple elctrochemical reactions in crabs' bodies that could result in the same external effect.I've read other articles on whether fish feel pain (from fish hooks etc.), and in those cases, they were able to identify neural stimuli entering the same area of the brain where humans process pain, which would be biological scientific evidence saying they might have a primordial pain sensation.

That's interesting, JMT. And I was reading the archives and noticed a thread about Nicole's crab Salty foaming... She got an injury to her mouth area, and if crabs dont feel pain, then why did she foam at the mouth?

very interesting, except for them abusing those crabs with electro shock

There's not necessarily any correlation between feeling pain and foaming at the mouth.Foaming for humans/dogs etc for rabies is caused by throat paralysis, not pain.

Really? Rabies paralyzes the throat? I didnt know that?