I was reading this article today... and I was amazed. The fact that people actually look on this as important science baffles me. According to a team in Norway, boiling lobsters alive doesn't hurt them:

Animal activists for years have claimed that lobsters are in agony when being cooked, and that dropping one in a pot of boiling water is tantamount to torture.

The study, funded by the Norwegian government and written by a scientist at the University of Oslo, suggests lobsters and other invertebrates such as crabs, snails and worms probably don't suffer even if lobsters do tend to thrash in boiling water.

First of all... neither side is very objective here. Of course animal activists are going to try to stir up emotions about torture. And of course the Norwegian government (who have an interest in their lobster industry) is going to say otherwise. But come one... who really cares? If lobsters were killed by electrocution first, do you think that the animal rights groups would quit complaining? Of course not! They're goal isn't to make killing lobster more humane... its to stop you from killing lobsters at all. Well guess what... they taste great! And you know what... they're going to die one way or another in order to eat them, so what's the point in arguing over exactly how they die? Honestly.