|
The easiest thing to do if you want to help lobsters, as well as other animals, is to stop eating them—then encourage others to follow your lead. Switching to a vegetarian diet will save countless animals from suffering, and you’ll feel better as well! For a free vegetarian starter kit, click here.
If you’re ready to be a “lobster libber,” here are some ideas about how you can crusade for crustaceans:
 1. Plan a Protest
Choose a location. You can rally outside a seafood restaurant or check your local paper for seafood festivals or expos or fundraisers featuring live lobsters as prizes—then contact PETA for stickers and leaflets. For tips on planning a demonstration, see PETA’s “Guide to Becoming an Activist” or contact us at Campaigns@peta.org.
2. Write a Letter to the Editor of Your Local Newspaper
Many people think that eating seafood is healthy—now that’s a fish story! If printed, a letter to the editor of your local paper can potentially reach hundreds of thousands of readers with the message that lobsters have the same capacity for suffering that dogs, cats, pigs, and other animals do and that in fact, the only way to ensure that a lobster dinner won’t poison you is to throw it out. Click here for a sample letter to the editor that you can adapt to fit your situation and send along to the local health department as well.
 3. Urge Local Supermarkets to Dump Their Lobster Tanks
Call or write store managers and ask that all lobster tanks be removed. Politely, but firmly, let them know that confining animals to a tiny tank, slowly starving them (most lobsters in restaurant and grocery store tanks are never fed), and then boiling them alive is extremely cruel. If the tank is crowded or dirty or if there are dead lobsters in the tank, file a written complaint with your local health department. Click here for a sample letter to supermarkets.
4. Liberate a Lobster
First of all, NEVER buy a lobster, as that simply supports the
industry. If you or someone you know receives a live lobster as
a gift, refer to PETA’s list of tips for releasing a lobster
here. Also contact your local paper
and TV and radio stations—media reports on lobster liberations
help educate others about the suffering that these animals endure
when they are killed for food.
 5. Use PETA’s “Being Boiled Hurts” Stickers in Highly Visible Places
Let us know how many stickers
you need, and we’ll send them right away. 
|
Celebrities Crusade for Crustaceans
|
 Countless caring people, including celebrities such as Mary Tyler Moore, and “Rock Lobster” singer Fred Schneider, believe that lobsters should be left in open waters, not placed in a cooking pot. Here’s what some of them have said about lobsters:
“I’ve always sung the praises of lobsters, and it really burns my butt when people drop ’em in a pot of boiling water.”
—The B-52’s Fred Schneider
 Click here to download Fred Schneider’s radio commercial urging listeners to boycott the annual Maine Lobster Festival.
 “To me, eating a lobster is out of the question. They are far more than just dinner in a shell. … If we had to drop live pigs or chickens into scalding water, chances are that few of us would eat them. Why should it be any different for lobsters?”
—Mary Tyler Moore
|
When a well-wisher mailed a live lobster to syndicated humor columnist Dave Barry, he immediately shipped the crustacean, whom he named Duane, back to Maine to be released into the ocean. Dave devoted an entire column to Duane, in which he wrote, “I felt responsible for this lobster. I felt that if something bad were to happen to [Duane], I would ultimately pay the price, under the principle of ‘karma,’ which holds that your fate in future incarnations is determined by how you treat lobsters.”
|
|
|
|
