[Linkpost] “The Night I Accidentally Stepped on a Snail” by Ria Viswanathan

This is a link post. The Incident It was 11 PM on a rainy August evening when my partner and I were walking back from a coffee shop in London, and I accidentally stepped on a snail. Its shell shattered completely under my weight, although it was still moving. We thought there was hope for it, and so we gently lifted it with a leaf and moved it off the sidewalk while I frantically searched on my phone for what to do. What followed was five agonising minutes of research and moral deliberation before we made the decision to euthanise it by crushing it. Nearly every source we found said the same thing: with a completely shattered shell, a snail is extremely unlikely to survive. They are unlikely to be able to regenerate shells that are badly damaged, and without protection for their internal organs, they are exposed to infections [...] ---Outline:(00:13) The Incident(03:36) What beyond that single snail?(08:16) Do snails suffer?(11:12) Why should we take this (and more) seriously?(16:49) What can we actually do?(19:24) Final thoughts--- First published: September 14th, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/apKpiCCjkoriaWDmD/the-night-i-accidentally-stepped-on-a-snail Linkpost URL:https://riaviswanathan.substack.com/p/the-night-i-accidentally-stepped --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.