Thanks for this thoughtful analysis! I must admit that I never really considered the welfare of snails as an issue, maybe because I am french and thus am culturally used to eating them.
One thing I wanted to confirm anecdotally is the consummation of snails in France. Even if snails with parsley butter is a classic french dish, it is eaten quite rarely (only for celebrations or Christmas and new year’s eve diners). And I know many people that don’t eat snails because they find it disgusting, even though they saw people eating them all their lives (similar to oysters in a sense).
As for what should be done, your case for the non-tractability and non-priority of snails welfare is pretty convincing. I still take from this post that undue pain (with or without sentience) is caused in snails, even from the position where it is okay to eat animals (My current position, which is in reassessing). I was quite horrified by the slime part.
Thanks for your comment, adamShimi! Do you have a sense of the profile of people that find eating snails disgusting? I wonder if it’s a generational issue, for example. In Spain, eating snails now seems to be much more prevalent among older generations than among the youngest population.
Anecdotally, almost everyone from older generations that I know eat snails, so it might indeed be generational. Whereas I know approximately the same number of people from each generation that dislike oysters (mostly texture).
Thanks for this thoughtful analysis! I must admit that I never really considered the welfare of snails as an issue, maybe because I am french and thus am culturally used to eating them.
One thing I wanted to confirm anecdotally is the consummation of snails in France. Even if snails with parsley butter is a classic french dish, it is eaten quite rarely (only for celebrations or Christmas and new year’s eve diners). And I know many people that don’t eat snails because they find it disgusting, even though they saw people eating them all their lives (similar to oysters in a sense).
As for what should be done, your case for the non-tractability and non-priority of snails welfare is pretty convincing. I still take from this post that undue pain (with or without sentience) is caused in snails, even from the position where it is okay to eat animals (My current position, which is in reassessing). I was quite horrified by the slime part.
Thanks for your comment, adamShimi! Do you have a sense of the profile of people that find eating snails disgusting? I wonder if it’s a generational issue, for example. In Spain, eating snails now seems to be much more prevalent among older generations than among the youngest population.
Anecdotally, almost everyone from older generations that I know eat snails, so it might indeed be generational. Whereas I know approximately the same number of people from each generation that dislike oysters (mostly texture).
Interesting, thank you!