Blog by: Calvin Scott Bailey

Among seashells and weird beach towels, a tank of painted hermit crabs is a beach-town staple. What most people fail to realize is that those tiny creatures exist entirely outside the Animal Welfare Act’s (AWA) protections. Because the Act only applies to certain vertebrates, animals like hermit crabs and shrimp are denied even the most basic welfare standards, leaving their treatment in the pet and seafood industries almost entirely unregulated. The AWA should be amended to extend protections, at a minimum, to decapod crustaceans such as hermit crabs and shrimp.

The AWA was originally enacted in 1966 in response to public concern over the treatment of animals in research facilities.[i] While the law has been amended several times to expand protections for certain species, its definition of “animal” has never been modernized to reflect current scientific understanding.[ii] In fact, nowhere does the statute mention invertebrates like crustaceans, mollusks, or insects.[iii] Because of this omission, the U.S. Department of Agriculture continues to interpret the AWA as applying only to warm-blooded species, leaving invertebrates entirely outside its reach.[iv] This creates a significant regulatory gap; animals used in the pet, seafood, and research industries are left without even the most basic welfare standards. This means that common practices, such as harvesting wild hermit crabs for the pet trade or removing the eyestalks of shrimp to induce spawning, remain entirely lawful and unregulated under federal law.

To really understand the harm, we must understand the creatures. Hermit crabs are not true crabs since they rely in the discarded shells of other animals for survival.[v] The front half of their bodies is protected by a hard exoskeleton, while the soft, unprotected abdomen and tail are fragile and easily injured.[vi] The name comes from their habit of occupying the discarded shells of other animals, yet it’s a misnomer.[vii] In the wild, hermit crabs are highly social animals that live in large colonies, often cooperating during shell exchanges, and can live up to thirty years (which shrinks to months in captivity).[viii] Hermit crabs also do not reproduce well in captivity, which is why almost all of them found in captivity were originally wild-caught.[ix]

These biological traits make hermit crabs especially vulnerable to abuse in the pet trade. Collectors can easily capture hundreds at a time from beaches, disrupting coastal ecosystems in the process.[x] Their delicate bodies are often damaged when they are forcibly removed from their natural shells and placed into brightly painted replacements that rarely fit or provide proper protection.[xi] From there, they are packed and shipped to gift shops across the country, where they are sold cheaply and individually, conditions that ignore their need for humidity, social contact, and shelter.[xii] The result is a supply chain that treats living creatures as disposable souvenirs, unregulated under the AWA.

Shrimp, like hermit crabs, are invertebrates that fall entirely outside the protections of the AWA, despite being among the most heavily farmed animals on the planet.[xiii] In aquaculture, billions of shrimp are bred each year under conditions that prioritize efficiency over welfare.[xiv] One of the most common practices is eyestalk ablation, in which one or both eyes of a female shrimp are cut or crushed to induce spawning.[xv] This is because a gland found in the eyestalk of female shrimp is responsible for inhibiting a specific hormone that facilitates egg production.[xvi] A procedure that has been shown to cause extreme stress and pain responses.[xvii] This practice is entirely lawful under current U.S. standards, underscoring how the AWA’s exclusion of invertebrates enables systemic cruelty on an industrial scale.

These examples reveal how the AWA’s narrow scope contradicts both modern science and ethical responsibility. A growing body of research demonstrates that decapod crustaceans can experience pain, stress, and exhibit learned avoidance behaviors.[xviii] Similarly, behavioral research has shown that crustaceans respond to injury and analgesics in ways consistent with pain perception, challenging the assumption that invertebrates are insentient.[xix] The U.S., however, continues to rely on outdated definitions written nearly sixty years ago, effectively denying protections to these animals.

Opponents of expanding the AWA could argue that enforcement would be impractical or economically burdensome. However, extending federal protections to decapods would not require rewriting the AWA; it would simply require expanding the statutory definition of “animal” under 7 U.S.C. § 2132(g) or directing the USDA to promulgate minimum welfare standards for these species. Doing so would align U.S. law with both scientific evidence and international practice. The U.K., European Union, and New Zealand have already enacted decapod protections without overburdening their seafood or research industries.[xx] Incorporating similar measures, like prohibiting harmful mutilation procedures, setting transport and housing standards, and banning wild capture for non-essential trade, would fulfill the AWA’s original purpose: to prevent unnecessary suffering.

[i] Eleni G. Bickell, Cong. Rsch. Serv., R47179, The Animal Welfare Act: Background and Selected Issues 1, https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/R/PDF/R47179/R47179.5.pdf. (updated Feb. 8, 2023).

[ii] Id.

[iii] Id. at 3.

[iv] Id.

[v] Hermit Crab Facts, Nat’l Geographic, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/facts/hermit-crabs [https://perma.cc/826L-CLKE] (last visited Oct. 15, 2025).

[vi] Id.

[vii] Id.

[viii] Kim Johnson, 7 Reasons Why You Should Never Buy a Hermit Crab, PETA, https://www.peta.org/living/animal-companions [https://perma.cc/2UGC-THGK] (updated Jan. 22, 2025).

[ix] Id.

[x] Chia-Hsuan Hsu et al., Conservation Implications from a Decade of Online Wildlife Trade for Land Hermit Crabs, 62 Biological Conservation 2 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2025.e03722.

[xi] Bob Fischer & Jamie Elsey, Shrimp: The Animals Most Commonly Used and Killed for Food Production, Rethink Priorities (Aug. 11, 2023), https://rethinkpriorities.org/research-area/shrimp-the-animals-most-commonly-used-and-killed-for-food-production/ [https://perma.cc/43CV-CC9B].

[xii] Id.

[xiii] Fischer, supra note 11, “440 billion farmed shrimp killed per year, with nearly 230 billion alive on farms at any moment.”

[xiv] Bob Fischer & Jamie Elsey, Welfare Considerations for Farmed Shrimp, Rethink Priorities, (Dec, 13, 2023), https://rethinkpriorities.org/research-area/welfare-considerations-for-farmed-shrimp/ [https://perma.cc/6ETY-AX58]

[xv] Bong Jung Kang et al., Dynamics of Vitellogenin and Vitellogenesis-Inhibiting Hormone Levels in Adult and Subadult Whiteleg Shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei: Relation to Molting and Eyestalk Ablation, 90 Biology of Reproduction. 1 (2014) https://doi.org/10.1095/biolreprod.113.112243.

[xvi] Id.

[xvii] Why Stop Using Eyestalk Ablation, Shrimp Welfare Project, (last visited Oct. 20, 2025), https://www.shrimpwelfareproject.org/why-stop-using-eyestalk-ablation. [https://perma.cc/5AGD-9CFM].

[xviii] Robert W. Elwood, Pain and Suffering in Invertebrates?, 52 ILAR J. 2, 175 (2009), https://watermark02.silverchair.com[perma.cc/WK32-6RN5].

[xix] Id.

[xx] Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022, c. 22 (UK), https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/22[https://perma.cc/T8Y8-MG7K].