Eating live animals is the practice of humans eating animals that are still alive. It is a traditional practice in many East Asian food cultures. Animals may also be eaten alive for shock value. Eating live animals, or parts of live animals, may be unlawful in certain jurisdictions under animal cruelty laws. Religious prohibitions on the eating of live animals by humans are also present in various world religions.
Practice
As a crime
In October 1963, a case was reported in Vitória de Santo Antão, Pernambuco, Brazil. A man named Antônio Pinto bought a donkey for three thousand cruzeiros. He then galloped with the animal and stopped at every bar he sighted to have a drink. Then, he bit on the animal's ear strongly enough to swallow it. He said that he had eaten the animal's ear as a "snack". Finally, he strangled the donkey with a cord.
In 2006 in Shelby County, Texas, 49-year-old Reggie Paul Fountain ate his pitbull puppy alive. He bit off the animal's ear and carried it around with him as he ran around his neighbourhood in his underwear, covered in blood, before he was restrained by police. He was arrested, and explained that he was on PCP and cocaine.
For shock value
Several television game shows such as Fear Factor, Survivor and I'm a Celebrity feature segments where contestants must eat live animals including spiders, cockroaches and grubs. On his show Man vs. Wild, host Bear Grylls is sometimes shown eating various insects alive. There have been calls to ban eating animals alive on these shows. A YouTube channel called "Food for Louis" shows Louis Cole eating live animals.
The swallowing of live goldfish was sometimes practiced within the United States.
Traditional food
Fish
In Japan, Ikizukuri ("prepared alive") is the preparation of sashimi ("pierced food") made from live seafood. The most popular sea animal used in ikizukuri is fish but octopus is typically the only species that is still moving on the plate.
Another fish dish invented by a Taiwanese chef from Chiayi, is called Yin Yang fish (also dead-and-alive fish) in which the fish's body (but not the head) is rapidly deep-fried and served while the head is still fresh and moving. It is prepared extremely quickly, with care not to damage the internal organs, so that the fish can remain alive for thirty minutes.
In an interview, celebrity chef Raymond Blanc stated that in Japan, he had eaten live eels. He was advised to add vinegar and sake, which made them jump around, and then swallowed them whole.
Frog
In 2012, a video showing a woman in Japan eating a live frog was posted on YouTube and went viral. In the video, a live frog is seen stabbed alive, stripped of its skin, and its inedible innards removed to be served as fresh sashimi on an iced platter.
In 2007, a newspaper reported that a man from south east China claimed that eating live frogs for a month cured his intestinal problems. He also eats live mice and rats.
Andrew Zimmern of the Travel Channel's Bizarre Foods ate frog sashimi in restaurant seafood name Asadachi in Shinjuku. Though most of the frog is served dead (and raw), the meal begins by eating the frog's fresh, still-beating heart.
Snake
Consuming the beating heart and blood of live snakes has been a reported practice among some locals and tourists in certain parts of Vietnam, particularly Le Mat village in Hanoi. The practice was documented on Gordon's Great Escape when celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay swallowed the beating heart of a cobra at a Ho Chi Minh eatery. It was also consumed by celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain in the same city.
Octopus
In Korea, Sannakji is the preparation of live octopus that has been cut into small pieces or prepared whole, and served with its arms still squirming. The octopus from which the tentacles are cut is usually dead by the time of serving; however, the animal's highly innervated limbs continue to writhe due to continuing nerve activity.
Sea urchin
Sea urchins are prized as a delicacy in many places worldwide (particularly in Japan, France, South Korea, Chile, New Zealand, the Philippines, Italy, Spain, the Mediterranean, and North America) for their briny-flavoured gonads. The gonads are often eaten raw, such as in sushi (typically called uni). Some people prefer to eat them immediately after they are cut open. Scissors are often used to avoid the protective spines whilst cutting the animal open. The gonads do not move, even when taken from the live animal.