Animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has sued the Maine Lobster Festival and the City of Rockland, asking a court to declare the event a public nuisance and ban the steaming of live lobsters on public property.
Filed in Knox County Superior Court, the lawsuit claims the multi-week festivities of the Maine Lobster Festival deprives local PETA members from accessing Harbor Park “without being forced to witness extreme animal suffering as approximately 16,000 live lobsters are illegally tormented and killed at the festival each year.”
“By openly cooking thousands of thinking, feeling animals alive, the Maine Lobster Festival is effectively turning public land into a venue for municipally supported cruelty,” PETA Foundation Director of Litigation Asher Smith said in a statement. “PETA is pushing to end these horrific displays and restore compassionate Rockland residents’ ability to enjoy Harbor Park year-round.”
The Midcoast Villager reported Festival Board President Celia Crie Knight stating that members of PETA are welcome to attend, although no protests or demonstrations will be allowed on festival grounds.
PETA has long opposed the practice of steaming lobsters in Maine, claiming that state law requires an “instantaneous death” when killing sentient creatures – which PETA maintains includes lobster.
“These sentient creatures are painfully scalded to death through prolonged exposure to superheated steam without prior stunning, mechanical destruction of the brain, or any method intended to render them insensible to pain, despite the abundance of well-established alternative slaughter methods,” the lawsuit states.
In the past, the activist organization has bought advertisements criticizing the event and carried out several dramatic protests to highlight its message. In 2018, PETA petitioned the state of Maine to create a roadside memorial for 7,000 pounds of lobster killed in a crash while being transported on U.S. Route 1 – the state ultimately denied the request.
First launched in 1947, the Maine Lobster Festival is set to kick off this year’s festivities 30 July.
