A lawsuit brought by animal rights activist organization PETA against the Maine Lobster Festival in Rockland, Maine, U.S.A., was dismissed on 26 January.
In the lawsuit, filed 28 July 2025, the group asked the court to declare the festival a public nuisance. Additionally, PETA claimed the festival made an “unavoidable spectacle out of cruelty to animals” and asked the judge to issue a permanent injunction prohibiting the steaming of live lobsters on public lands.
At the time, PETA Foundation Director of Litigation Asher Smith called the festival a municipally supported cruelty on public land, with about 16,000 lobsters steamed live at the festival each year. PETA has staged demonstrations at prior festivals to draw attention to its opposition.
According to the Midcoast Villager, Judge Patrick Larson dismissed the Knox County lawsuit, ruling that the claim did not meet the legal requirement necessary for public nuisance. The judge also ruled that individuals with PETA are not legally granted the right to be free from conduct they find objectionable.
PETA also asked the court to issue an injunction against both the festival and city of Rockland, both of which were denied.
PETA has argued that there’s overwhelming scientific consensus that lobsters are sentient beings, protected under Maine law, thus requiring “instantaneous death.” Though PETA makes the case that Maine law defines “animal” to include “every living, sentient creature not a human being” and feels that scientific consensus confirms that lobsters meet this threshold based on their capacity to experience pain, Maine’s then-District Attorney Geoffrey Rushlau argued in 2013 that state animal cruelty laws were not intended to cover invertebrate species.
Larson did not rule on whether live lobster steaming was cruel or whether it was a nuisance.
"Because the complaint fails to allege facts sufficient to establish the special injury requirement of a public nuisance claim, the court need not address the arguments about whether live lobster steaming constitutes a nuisance," Larson stated in his ruling.
PETA said it plans to file additional legal actions shortly.
"Lobsters’ lives shouldn’t be dismissed any more than PETA’s lawsuit should be, and the case is a historic one. It comes at a time when the City must honestly acknowledge that other sentient forms of life may not look exactly like Maine residents, but they feel pain and are having it cruelly inflicted on them," PETA Foundation General Counsel Asher Smith told SeafoodSource.
