Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (2 minutes ago)

[Bewlay Bros]

I quote

"I have already killed these prawns humanely by placing them in a freezer for two hours and then plopping them in boiling water"

Am I the only one who found this a funny thing to say!!!

[peppy]

No BB, me too. And then he proceeded to ' humanely ' kill a crab by stabbing it between the eyes with a knife then twisting it to prise the shell off !
Makes ya wonder what the inhumane alternative is, don't ya think ?

[Quizmonster]

I'm no expert, but isn't that more or less how cattle etc are 'humanely' slaughtered in Britain generally? That is, a captive bolt is fired into their head and a metal rod is then 'stirred' around in the resulting hole to destroy the brain.
Seems pretty similar to what HFW did to the crab, apart from the freezing element. That, I imagine, just allows the creatures to drift into unconsciousness, just as happens to human beings trapped on winter mountainsides.
I certainly didn't think it "a funny thing to say".

[redcrx]

prawns go into a deep sleep when frozen dont they? just like lobster? Maybe they just dont wake up when they are then boiled?

my other half was saying that it wasnt right that they showed the salmon being clubbed to death til i told him about 'commando' the other week where they showed how to kill chickens and rabbits!

[ermintrude35]

....it may sound cruel but it is far worse to just leave the prawns/fish to die slowly, like errr a fish out of water.....

[beerbelly]

For maximum freshness , plunge the little critters into boiling water . Swift ,humane and fun .