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‘ Steaming Mad:’ PETA Sues to Shut Down World’s Largest Lobster Cooker at Maine Festival
The Maine Wire ^ | July 25, 2025 | Ted Cohen

Posted on 08/02/2025 2:47:55 PM PDT by DoodleBob

An “animal-rights” lobby has gone to court to try to stop Rockland’s annual “egregiously cruel method of steaming thousands of lobsters alive.”

People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) filed its lawsuit in an attempt to get a judge to declare the Maine Lobster Festival a “public nuisance.”

Barring a Knox County Court order, the 78th-annual, four-day lobster celebration is scheduled to begin July 30.

PETA argues that the festival, if allowed to go forward, would be violating Maine law prohibiting “the torture and torment of animals.”

The animal-protection organization argues that “lobsters are sentient beings and are entitled to protection.’”

The lawsuit asserts that the festival prevents members of the public from accessing and enjoying Harbor Park “without being forced to witness extreme animal suffering as approximately 16,000 live lobsters are illegally tormented and killed each year.”

Festival organizers argue that Maine’s laws “do not prohibit the traditional preparation of lobster and that the state has not recognized boiling or steaming lobsters as a violation of animal welfare laws.”

The debate among scientists and even everyday Americans over whether lobsters feel pain has been going on since evolution began.

While some scientists believe lobsters do feel pain, others argue their nervous systems are not complex enough to process the sensation of pain.

So how to settle the argument once and for all is an assignment yet completed.

For a variety of views on the topic try visiting Reddit, where lay opinions reign supreme.

“Lobsters don’t have pain receptors, so they don’t feel pain like we do,” offered BreakfastBeerz. “They can ‘sense’ a stimulus they know they need to get away from, but they don’t feel it like we do.

“When they get out in boiling water, they know, ‘Yeah, this is bad, I need to get out of here,’ but it’s not a burning sensation.”

As evidence of his theory, BreakfastBeerz said that if lobsters felt pain, they wouldn’t be able to get on with their day after they lose a whole arm, as they often do.

StayProsty wasn’t worried enough about lobsters feeling pain to avoid adding a little humor to the discussion:

“Plants feel suffering too. That’s why pine trees can rapidly shed their cones when the weather is inconsistent. Shedding cones is a survival instinct, and doing so is basically a panic response.”


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Maine
KEYWORDS: eatzeebugs; lobsters; peta

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1 posted on 08/02/2025 2:47:55 PM PDT by DoodleBob
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To: DoodleBob
I don't remember hearing anything from them during the Fauci beagle testing torture that came to light.

Bueller?

Bueller?

2 posted on 08/02/2025 2:49:19 PM PDT by Lizavetta
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To: DoodleBob

People Eating Tasty Animals


3 posted on 08/02/2025 2:49:40 PM PDT by kiryandil (No one in AZ that voted for Trump voted for Gallego )
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To: DoodleBob

PETA is so irrelevant.


4 posted on 08/02/2025 2:49:48 PM PDT by Fledermaus ("It turns out all we really needed was a new President!")
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To: kiryandil

That was so cool…when the web was new and more like an anarchists delight.


5 posted on 08/02/2025 2:51:22 PM PDT by DoodleBob (Gravity's waiting period is about 9.8 m/s²)
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To: Lizavetta

Do they have a nursing home set up for these creatures for which they want longevity? The lobsters have dreams to fulfill?


6 posted on 08/02/2025 2:51:35 PM PDT by stanne (Because they were mesmerized by Obama, the man for whom this was named, whose name they left out of )
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To: DoodleBob

7 posted on 08/02/2025 2:52:38 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: DoodleBob

“When they get out in boiling water, they know, ‘Yeah, this is bad, I need to get out of here,’ but it’s not a burning sensation.”

The doesn’t really make it sound any better.


8 posted on 08/02/2025 2:53:23 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is opinion or satire. Or both.)
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To: Fledermaus

Well. They got ONE thing right.

Why Crickets Are Friends, Not Food (PETA vs WEF alert)
PETA ^ | March 9, 2017 | Sirrus Lawson

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4330870/posts


9 posted on 08/02/2025 2:53:36 PM PDT by DoodleBob (Gravity's waiting period is about 9.8 m/s²)
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To: Lizavetta

and what about the great Pennsylvania Hot Dog Spill?


10 posted on 08/02/2025 2:55:18 PM PDT by NativeSon ( *> <*)
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To: DoodleBob
Now the Spirit speaks expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God has created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
1 Timothy 4:1-5.

Biblically PETA is the purveyor of lies and doctrines of devils.

Don't be seduced by their spirit of antichrist.

11 posted on 08/02/2025 2:56:42 PM PDT by Jim W N (MAGA by restoring the Gospel of the Grace of Christ (Jude 3) and our Free Constitutional Republic!)
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To: dfwgator

Hahahahahahaha that was the very first thing that popped into my mind!!!!!


12 posted on 08/02/2025 3:00:09 PM PDT by rlmorel (Factio Communistica Sinensis Delenda Est.)
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To: BenLurkin
"...if lobsters felt pain, they wouldn’t be able to get on with their day after they lose a whole arm, as they often do..."

Yeah. I hate it when that happens to me!

13 posted on 08/02/2025 3:01:13 PM PDT by rlmorel (Factio Communistica Sinensis Delenda Est.)
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To: DoodleBob

How nature works. Some animals eat animals. They don’t care if the prey suffers. Humans eat animals.


14 posted on 08/02/2025 3:04:36 PM PDT by I want the USA back (America is once again GREAT! Blue Lives Matter!)
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To: DoodleBob

The Lobster Festival is in full swing. Parade was this morning. I didn’t see the suffering lobster girl this year but when I drove by the main entrance to Harbor Park at noon, the “No Kings” gang was gathering for their weakly (no spelling error) No Kings rally. Looked like a guy with a Trump mask was in an orange prison outfit. Sheesh, get a life.


15 posted on 08/02/2025 3:04:41 PM PDT by NewHampshireDuo ( )
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To: DoodleBob
"Plants feel suffering too."

I don't believe that. It is just a natural process for continuation of the species. Lobsters don't feel pain. Yet, we raise and slaughter cows, pigs, chickens that do have nerve endings. So what? We're at the top of the food chain.

16 posted on 08/02/2025 3:06:51 PM PDT by A Navy Vet (USA Birth Certificate - 1789. Death Certificate - 2021? )
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To: Fledermaus

For Peta steam the lobsters after they are well dead.


17 posted on 08/02/2025 3:08:05 PM PDT by AndyJackson
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To: DoodleBob

So what are we supposed to eat? Grass? Seaweed? Bugs? Don’t bugs feel pain? Maybe if we all starve the ass holes in Peta will feel all warm and fuzzy.


18 posted on 08/02/2025 3:13:31 PM PDT by Omnivore-Dan (have to )
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To: BenLurkin; rlmorel; I want the USA back; NewHampshireDuo; Jim W N; kiryandil; metmom

I think they mean that there is a sensation of danger and flight is required…and then they die.

We used to buy our meat direct from the farmer (he moved away, and we now go to a farm that’s larger where we don’t know the owner). We got to “meet” our cows before they were “processed.” They were treated humanely. Same with the pigs we got from that farmer.

When we got the processed half-cow, we knew we were eating “Ferdinand.” Nobody cried. Everyone understood this is why the animals are here. However, after the farmer, the little DoodleBobs (and the missus and I) had a better appreciation for our meat and food wasn’t wasted. We buy locally-grown produce and processed cows etc. whenever we can.

I am also a fan of what Temple Grandin has promoted. “I think using animals for food is an ethical thing to do, but we’ve got to do it right. We’ve got to give those animals a decent life, and we’ve got to give them a painless death. We owe the animal respect.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Grandin.

I’m all for steaks and burgers. Bacon is its own owesome food group. But I don’t want my dinner to suffer in the process.

All that said, PETA is a big bag of nuts.


19 posted on 08/02/2025 3:19:00 PM PDT by DoodleBob (Gravity's waiting period is about 9.8 m/s²)
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To: DoodleBob

Sort of like when the communists entered the WH in 1977, 1993, 2009, and 2021...

Americans felt the pain as freedoms and liberties were extinguished...


20 posted on 08/02/2025 3:19:32 PM PDT by SuperLuminal (Where is rabble-rising Sam Adams now that we need him? Is his name Trump, now?)
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