What We May Learn About Kindness from Sentient Prawns

Photo courtesy of Regalis Seafood in Australia

Professor Joe Goldblatt

Although I read less and less daily news than I did before the election catastrophe in American back in November 2024, one headline caught my attention The Guardian newspepr reported that seafood companies were under pressure to find more human ways to end the life of sentient prawns. Evidently many years ago the Wastminister Parliament passed legislation enshrining in law the sentient rights of certain seafood including prawns.

After reading a little further, I discovered that currently billions of prawns suffocate in a painful death by being placed in ice water baths until they finally die. It is now recommended by food scientists that pawns should first be stunned with an electric shock, similar to four legged animals such as cows and sheep. I also noted that prior to their death as part of the breeding process female prawns have their eyes plucked out so that they will be more likely to ovulate and produce more eggs. Those poor prawns definitely need a trade union!

As I read this dreary story that is the result of human beings infatuation with shell fish such as prawns I thought of how we homosapiens also regularly fail to show respect and kindness for one another. Whilst we do not regularly pluck the eyes out of our species nor consciously and purposely use inhumanely painful methods for punishing one another, we do suffer other guilt from other misdeeds related to our daily lack of kindness toward our fellow human beings.

Each Saturday morning I volunteer in a local charity shop selling clothing and homeware to raise money to help find better treatments and cures for cancer. When a customer enters our shop I approach them, smile and say “Good morning, let me know if I may help you in any way.” Over many years of issuing this friendly greeting, only one customer has rebuffed my kindness by saying “I want to be left alone”. I immediately respected her request by walking to the safety of the till.

The remainder of the thousands of customers I have greeted have thanked me for my kindness and each week one or two say to me “You have found the perfect job. You are really good at customer service!” I then explain that I am merely a retired Professor who is now a volunteer and my goal each weekend is to help in a small way to ease other people’s suffering from the terrible disease known as cancer. When they realise that I am a volunteer rather than an employee they often top up their sale amount with a generous cash gift to support my charity.

These same customers also occassionaly visit my shop with overstuffed bags filled with books, clothing, homeware, and more. They always begin with the same line asking “Are you accepting donations?” and when I say “Aye!” they they begin to describe the contents of each bag. Their descriptions are both historical in perspective as well as an assessment of what they believe the economic value might be of their treasures. As I accept their bags I thank them and remind them that inside each bag could just possibly be part of the cure for cancer. Somehow, when I offer this possibility, they seem to stand a wee bit taller as they turn to depart my shop.

I am of the opinion that kindness and the recognition of the humanity within every soul we meet are gifts that we all are free to readily share with others. In fact, by sharing these priceless gifts, which cost us nothing, we are also demonstrating the value we place in every human being we encounter. We are infact behaving humanely and using our eyes and ears to let our fellow humans know they are being seen and more greatly valued by others.

The poor billions of prawns who daily have their lives sacrificed for our personal pleasures may indeed be sentient but to my way of thinking they still do not possess that human quality of having a soul or in my religion of Judaism what is known as a nefesh. The hebrew word nephesh literally means “breath” and according to the Scriptures every animal and human upon being born was supossedly given the breath of God.

However, what we do with our breath and how we use it for the great good of one another is something that human beings have had a greater capacity to fulfill because of our ability to not only feel but also to think. By using our brains to relieve suffering and promote kindness and humaneness in all of God’s creatures we are in my view attempting to raise to an even high level of humaness and in so doing we also enrich our own souls through these daily acts.

Therefore, for the time being, I have swore off prawns because I am reminded of the story of the old man and the starfish. One night at low tide and old man walked along the beach and found dozens of star fish washed ashore. One by one, despite being in great pain from arthritis, he stooped down, scooped up each individual star fish and gently placed them into the surf.

A young boy came along and said to the old fellow, “Why are you wasting your time doing that?” The old man explained to the wee boy “I am throwing starfish into the ocean. The tide has washed them up onto the beach and they can’t return to the sea by themselves,” the youth replied. “When the sun gets high, they will die, unless I throw them back into the water.”

The boy retorted, “It does not matter to them whether they live or die. There must be tens of thousands of starfish on this beach. I’m afraid your act won’t really matter to them.”

And the old man, holding a small starfish in his hand, said to the boy “It matters to this one.” Then he walked into the surf, looked back over his shoulder at the boy, and smiled.

I suppose with each human or animal I encounter I now ask “What matters most to them?”

Professor Joe Goldblatt is Emeritus Professor of Planned Events at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, Scotland. His views are his own. To learn more about his views visit www.joegoldblatt.scot