Live Lobsters Torn Limb From Limb in Shocking New Eyewitness Video
Workers at Maine Fair Trade Lobster in the US state of Maine can be seen dismembering conscious lobsters by tearing off their claws, puncturing their shells, and ripping their heads off in a shocking new eyewitness video given to PETA US.
Maine Fair Trade Lobster is part of the East Coast Seafood Group, which sells live and dead lobsters and dead fish throughout the US, Europe, and Asia.
Despite being torn limb from limb, the animals often don’t die immediately. Scientists have conclusively determined that lobsters, like humans and all other animals, feel pain. But they don’t enter a state of shock when injured, so they feel every moment of their slow, painful death. Dismembering fully conscious lobsters doesn’t cause instantaneous death and constitutes mutilation and torture, causing the animals pain and suffering, in apparent violation of state law.
Business as Usual
This horrific practice is standard operating procedure for Maine Fair Trade Lobster and is evidently also common throughout the Maine lobster industry. PETA US found live animals being torn apart at the now defunct Sea Hag Seafood processing plant in 2012 and again at the Linda Bean’s Maine Lobster processing plant in 2013. Some lobsters were mutilated and left to die in rubbish bins.
PETA US has filed a complaint with the local police department, and an investigation is underway. The group is also urging corporate buyers of lobster “products” to reconsider their relationship with East Coast Seafood Group while this practice is still going on.
Most people would never dream of mutilating or boiling a dog or cat to death, but it’s just as cruel to do that to a lobster.
You Can Help Lobsters
The best way to help lobsters is simply to stop eating them. Rather than pulling these animals from their ocean homes, transporting them vast distances, and violently taking their lives, we can leave them alone and choose to eat something else. Why not also swear off eating all animal-derived foods and distance yourself from cruelty altogether? Order PETA’s free vegan starter kit for information and recipes to help you live with compassion.
