User:Crazy sam10/Weekly News Questions/Question 1

Do jelly babies have feelings?
The story of the jelly baby began in Victorian England, when village shop owners began looking around for new treats to make them rich. It was a Cornish woman who literally stumbled across a brand new chewy treat while out walking her dogs on the beach.

Thousands of jelly babies (or Catostylus mosaicus miniacus) had been caught up in a strong south Atlantic current, carried thousands of miles from the Liberian coastal city of Monrovia (their usual winter migratory spot) and washed up on the beach in Widemouth Bay. These tiny white members of the Scyphozoan class, who lay confused and cold on the sand, suddenly found themselves being devoured by two large Irish Setters. When the Cornish confectioner saw how popular these little human-shaped jellyfish were with her dogs she collected a sample and conducted a series of tortuous taste tests, injecting flavourings and dyes into the screaming little creatures whilst they were stll alive.

Because of their small size it was too difficult and messy to kill them, so instead she opted for a tasteless wax-based coating that paralysed the bodies of the 'babies' and forced their insides to settle into a single soft jelly cell. Jelly Babies were an instant hit, with children up and down Britain merrily biting the heads and appendages off these defenceless little creatures. Concerned that demand would outweigh supply, she set up a fish farm and sent a few 'babies' out to sea in the hope that an SOS would be delivered to jelly baby colonies around the world. Sure enough, the following year, thousands more arrived and were caught in extravagant nets and delivered to her farm, where she was able to establish a breeding colony that has continued to supply sweet-toothed kiddies with their favourite sugary treats to this very day.

Although it is believed that the paralytic coating does prevent the babies from feeling any physical pain when chewed, they are very much alive and scared when you eat them.