This post is going to be a bit gruesome. If you're not interested, go look at something cute instead. That's what I would do.Well, the head and body (mantle) are undeniably separated. Was the head removed from the body or the body removed from the head? Does it matter?There are really two questions here: (1) does separating the head from the mantle kill the squid and, if so, how quickly/painfully? (2) is the squid still alive when soy sauce is used to activate its muscles in odori-don?
This post is going to be a bit gruesome. If you're not interested, go look at something cute instead. That's what I would do.
Well, the head and body (mantle) are undeniably separated. Was the head removed from the body or the body removed from the head? Does it matter?
There are really two questions here: (1) does separating the head from the mantle kill the squid and, if so, how quickly/painfully? (2) is the squid still alive when soy sauce is used to activate its muscles in odori-don?
The answer to the first is yes: no squid can live by head and arms alone (or by mantle alone). But that doesn't mean it dies immediately upon making the cut. The best way to ensure a quick death is to destroy the brain, which is done by cutting through the head rather than merely removing the head (or removing the body, if you think about it that way). From that point of view, the killing of a squid for odori-don is not as humane as it could be--though I still think there's a case for arguing that it's more humane than suffocation, which is how all other squid are killed (e.g. for calamari rings).
As for the second question, no, I believe the squid is quite dead by the time the soy sauce is applied. Why? Because it isn't moving. The muscles of the arms are not being activated by the brain, they're being activated by a massive dose of sodium--just like the frog legs in the second video. But I'd concede that this question is debatable, depending on your definition of death.
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