Humanely kill a crab

Catfaery · #1 09-03-2010, 03:16 AM

I wanted to know, what is the most humane way to kill a crab.
Boiling water seems a bit harsh as does stabbing it between the eyes. Those are the options I have seen.
Any insight would be great!
I am trying to enlarge my education and diet.

Thanks,
Cat

Aamylf · #2 09-03-2010, 08:14 AM

My ex used to take each one, throw it in the freezer and once it was frozen or nearly frozen, 'pop' it's shell off and clean it, then cook or refreeze (as they were never totally unfrozen, so it was safe.) According to him, this was the least painful as they just slowly went into 'hibernation' and then died. It was the only way he could eat them as boiling them to death made him sick. Me, too. I eat meat, but can't abide cruelty. (He wouldn't shoot a deer unless he was sure he would drop it in its tracks with the first shot, either.)

backlash · #3 09-03-2010, 01:04 PM

Boiling water is the best way I know of.
You can put them in the freezer for 20 min or so and that will make them dormant.
Then put them directly into the boiling water and they never have time to wake up from the cold.

nhlivefreeordie · #4 09-03-2010, 01:28 PM

Boiling water....and I doubt anyone intends for other than a one shot kill on a deer, it does happen though. Humane killing is nothing more than someone trying to make themselves feel better in my opinion. They are here for us to use as food, you should dispatch them as quickly as possible, but passing up potential meat because you aren't sure of an immediate kill is crazy to me, but different strokes for sure, I wish all those that hunt near me would practice that philosophy, I would get more opportunities that way...LOL

DM · #5 09-03-2010, 05:38 PM

I've seen this very question come up on the food channel and other places. Boiling water is always the answer that is given.

As for deer falling on the spot. I have to tell you, i have harvested a train load of big game animals, from brown bear, blk. bear, moose, caribou, deer and about everything else. Sometimes they go down at the shot, and sometimes they run a ways. You never know forsure what will happen, even when two are hit in the exact same spot! You just have to do your absolute best to make a humane shot.

DM

CapeCMom · #6 09-03-2010, 07:58 PM

OK-for once I'm going to be the bad guy here. We all want to be humane as much as we can but it's something you really have to get over. In a SHTF situation you are not going to survive if you are worried about stuff like this. You just aren't.

nhlivefreeordie · #7 09-03-2010, 10:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CapeCMom

OK-for once I'm going to be the bad guy here. We all want to be humane as much as we can but it's something you really have to get over. In a SHTF situation you are not going to survive if you are worried about stuff like this. You just aren't.

You aren't bad in my book, matter of fact and smart to boot. It is a fact that something has to die for something else to live, that is the way it is. And isn't humane supposed to pertain to HUMANS. Wild animals are no different than crops or livestock, they serve a purpose, and that is to feed us. I have known some pretty good hunters and they will say the same thing, shoot for as quick a kill as possible, but saying they have to drop on the spot is ludicrous. I have shot a pile of deer, and only one never took another step, and that was because he was headed right for me, and my .50cal. muzzleloader lifted him clean off the ground and deposited him on his back, at 25 feet! The others all went some, some quite a ways, but I only ever had one I didn't find, and that is good enough for me. You are right CCM, those kind of feelings will get you dead in a hurry if TSHTF.

backlash · #8 09-04-2010, 12:58 AM

I told my vegan niece that when I eat something has to die first.
She was appalled.

NotSoFast · #9 09-04-2010, 02:44 AM

I guess she doesn't realize that the vegetables and grain plants die, or are traumatized, when the vegetable is harvested. So she too is eating dead things she just doesn't admit it.

Moody Vaden · #10 09-04-2010, 10:15 AM

Throw it in the pot!

Tis the season... Those buggers are up in the head of the bay now. Nothing like a picnic table, good friends, and a bushel of jumbos... oh, and beer.

Terri · #11 09-04-2010, 09:13 PM

Catfairy, don't let the fussin' throw you. I, also, kill a fish as quickly as I can (no crabs in Kansas). I used to break the spine but now I wrap them in a plastic bag so that they suffocate quickly. It is hard to break the spine of even a small catfish!

All I can say, is to try different methods and see.

I suppose it is different with crabs, but, you can put a knife through the roof of a chickens mouth and kill him instantly: do not discount stabbing between the eyes if that is where the brain is!

MrGreenJeans · #12 09-06-2010, 12:37 AM

It,s a water bug. Tasty water bug but still a bug.The main reason for a quick kill on anything is to stop the adrenilen, if it has any from making the meat taste stronger. Faster the kill most times better the meat. I reckon.

Catfaery · #13 09-06-2010, 03:29 AM

Thanks to everyone for the great advice. If I get the chance to try crab and find a good recipe I will post it.

rivahmom · #14 09-07-2010, 08:44 PM

As someone who has grown up around crabs, I beg you to never boil one. The proper way to cook them is to steam them. Boiling destroys the meat and makes them difficult to pick afterward. Also, it may not be humane but they taste best if steamed alive.

kawalabear · #15 03-16-2011, 09:45 PM

i vote for steam and a lot of old bay !!

cuppajoe · #16 03-16-2011, 10:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kawalabear

i vote for steam and a lot of old bay !!

mmmmmm........... steamed crabs an old bay............

Poonie · #17 04-15-2011, 11:42 AM

Hmm, so you will freeze a crab, then boil it just to justify your feelings of a humane kill, yet you will more than likely poison rats, snap mice in a trap, stomp on bugs, impale worms on fishooks, wipe out fleas on your dog with a collar, swat flies, etc and not think twice about it.......Hmmm, I love the smell of hypocracy in the morning.........

My thoughts on the crab thing....as far as I'm concerned the crab killed itself, I just baited the trap!

Mitch · #18 09-13-2011, 11:07 AM

I guess I am with Poonie on this one. I just can't feel empathy for an animal I am killing to eat. Never crosses my mind. I guess because as a child, chicken dinner always started out by getting a hatchet. Meat didn't come in plastic packages when I was a kid, it always had either feathers or fur as a wraping.

I don't understand this empathy thing. I guess I am beyond feeling it. You can't eat an animal until it is dead so the quickest way to that goal is what I do. But a bug? drop his butt in the steamer

Instead of worring about transferring human emotions to him, go melt some butter !

Mitch

mozarkian · #19 09-13-2011, 12:19 PM

A crab is no different from any living thing that is headed for the plate. Deer are pretty in the woods, but once that bullet succeeds, it becomes food. 50 years ago as I grew up, my dad had a huge herd of brush goats and a large family to feed, so every Friday one of those pretty little goats that I fed and played with became meat for the next week. It was just the way it was.
I have cows - 15 named, pampered, fussed over ones at the moment. 2 of these are taking a one way trip in a couple weeks and will be coming home shrink wrapped. Just the way it is. They were bought with a purpose in mind, they are treated extremely well here and it is always a little sad hauling them in. By special agreement, the butcher always kills them as soon as I unload them because I don't want them to be scared or nervous for hours while waiting to be killed. When they drop they become meat. Just the way it is.
Kill that crab and enjoy him. That's how you honor his life.