Dear Phil Osifers:-
        A ;long time ago, Plato described "pleasure" as the absence of "pain".
He further surmised from that,  the ultimate pleasure must be death. Therefore,
if you are a Platonist, killing those things inside shells is an act of
granting happiness.
        Of course, if you are not a Platonist-----never mind.
    Art

Patty Jansen wrote:

> Dear list,
>
> I though Alfonso put that very well.
>
> I think also the question 'do shells have feelings?' a bit irrelevant,
> since we cannot ask them; well, we may try, but the chance of getting an
> answer is very slim.
>
> I think rather than whether or not shells have feelings, to us as humans
> the question that matters is whether or not we think it is morally
> justified to kill them.
>
> I might add that even if we think the answer to the above question is no,
> by driving our cars, using paper, and simply by living, we kill them anyway
>
> I am probably too down-to-earth to be a good philosopher
>
> Patty