Yes, recent research has discovered that prawns do feel pain after all!
Tucking into a plate of seafood, few diners spare a thought for the feelings of the creatures in front of them.
Scientists have no qualms either, having long argued that crustaceans such as lobsters don't feel pain even when cooked live in boiling water.
But a British biologist is challenging this orthodoxy with a study suggesting that prawns, at least, do suffer when harmed.
Professor Robert Elwood dabbed acetic acid, the main ingredient of vinegar, on to the antennae of 144 of them.
The prawns reacted by rubbing the affected parts of their bodies for up to five minutes.
The reaction, he said, was exactly the same as that seen in mammals exposed to painful irritants.
"The prolonged, specifically directed rubbing and grooming is consistent with an interpretation of pain experience," he told New Scientist magazine.
Most biologists believe that simple invertebrates - animals with no backbones and limited nervous systems- cannot feel pain or experience-suffering.
Professor Elwood, of Queen's University, Belfast, rejects this argument on evolutionary grounds. The ability to suffer allows animals to learn from harmful experiences and avoid them in the future, he said.
I don't know about you but I'll still enjoy my prawns the way I've always enjoyed them before knowing this.
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