Image via
PETA is demanding a memorial for 4,500 lobsters that died due to a road collision earlier this month.
On August 22nd a ‘Cozy Harbor Seafood’ box truck overturned on Route 1, in Brunswick. This followed 60-70 crates of live lobsters to be strewn across the road. An estimated 7,000 lbs of lobster died. They were completely unrecoverable for sale also having been unrefrigerated and spoiled by freshwater rain.
PETA or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals say that they want to promote how this could have been avoided. The tombstone they propose states ‘Try Vegan’ as the main message after the deaths of these creatures. They have submitted a sketch to state highway officials in Maine for approval.
Bob Bayer, executive director of the Lobster Institute at the University of Maine states that lobsters are most likely do not feel pain due to their nervous systems being like that of an insect. However, PETA disagrees stating that “crustaceans don’t enter a state of shock when injured, [so] they feel every moment of their slow, painful death”.
Do you think lobsters can feel pain? The point remains contested
We understand PETA’s ethos, and how this may turn a few heads. Especially those of residents in Maine, where lobster is a huge export. The roadside memorial will be classed as a temporary sign and allowed to be up for 12 weeks. Therefore, we don’t know what PETA intend to do to make this a possible permanent memorial.
