GAIA action
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9 December 2025

As the holiday season approaches, GAIA is reminding the public of a reality that is too often ignored: behind every lobster served at the table lies intense, avoidable and scientifically documented suffering.
And Belgium plays a central role in this cruelty. When adjusted for population, our country is the world’s largest consumer of lobsters — a title there is little reason to be proud of.

Belgium, champion of lobster suffering

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Every year, Belgium imports around 7.4 million lobsters, of which more than 4 million arrive alive. This represents an average of 0.63 lobster consumed per person per year, or more than half a lobster per person — a level of consumption among the highest in the world.


In just five years, imports have risen sharply: from 5.35 million lobsters in 2019 to 7.40 million in 2024, an increase of 38%, revealing an alarming upward trend.

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Long suffering for sentient beings

The mistreatment begins at the time of capture. Because the Canadian fishing season takes place in the spring, lobsters can be crammed together for up to 9 months in holding tanks, with their claws tied. Transported vertically in crates, they end up in Belgium in overcrowded tanks or, even worse, placed alive on ice, causing a slow, agonising death.

 

An ordeal in the kitchen

Lobsters are often boiled alive or cut in half without stunning, even though a lobster immersed in boiling water can remain alive and conscious for 1 minute, and up to 2 to 3 minutes for larger specimens.
And contrary to a persistent myth, their ability to feel pain is now firmly demonstrated. The work of researcher Lynne Sneddon (University of Gothenburg), as well as the New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness (2024), confirm that lobsters do indeed feel pain.
Public opinion reflects this awareness: according to an IPSOS survey conducted for GAIA in 2020, more than 4 out of 5 Belgians know that lobsters suffer when they are boiled alive. Another IPSOS survey conducted in 2024 reveals that 74% support a ban on these practices.

GAIA calls for cruelty-free holidays

In its new campaign, GAIA calls on consumers to give up lobster during the holidays. GAIA is spreading this message through a powerful video spot, broadcast nationwide on television, in cinemas and online. The spot features a dog named “Bonhomard”, who feels invincible… until he is suspended above a pot of boiling water.


Carrefour, Delhaize and Intermarché are currently the last retail chains still selling live lobsters. GAIA is urging them to finally adopt a policy that respects animal welfare.
On the political level, the organisation calls on regional Ministers for Animal Welfare to ban live boiling and live cutting, and to make prior stunning mandatory, for example via the Crustastun, which stuns lobsters and crabs in a fraction of a second.