The animal rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has filed a lawsuit against one of America’s largest seafood celebrations, describing the event as a disturbing showcase of cruelty.
On July 24, PETA submitted a complaint to the Knox County Superior Court in Maine, targeting the Maine Lobster Festival and the city of Rockland, where the annual gathering has taken place for nearly eight decades. The suit alleges widespread animal cruelty tied to the festival’s tradition of boiling thousands of lobsters alive — approximately 20,000 pounds of lobster are prepared each year, according to the festival website.
The group argues this practice constitutes a “public nuisance” centered on “extreme animal suffering.” Through the lawsuit, PETA seeks a permanent court order to ban the steaming of live lobsters on public grounds.
PETA Labels Festival Practices as ‘Cruelty’
According to the lawsuit, boiling around 16,000 lobsters alive violates a Maine statute that mandates sentient animals be killed using methods that ensure “instantaneous death.” PETA claims the festival’s process of chilling lobsters before steaming does not make them unconscious — it only temporarily hinders motor function — thereby failing to prevent suffering.
The complaint also cites what it describes as a growing “scientific consensus” that lobsters are sentient and capable of feeling pain. As a result, PETA contends that boiling them alive is both illegal under state law and disrupts the public’s enjoyment of Harbor Park, where the festival takes place.
“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,” said Asher Smith, Director of Litigation at the PETA Foundation, in a statement shared with USA TODAY. “PETA is pushing to end these horrific displays and restore compassionate Rockland residents’ ability to enjoy Harbor Park year-round.”
Festival Defends Its Cooking Practices
In response, organizers defended their methods in a statement provided to the Penobscot Bay Pilot, emphasizing that their approach complies with legal norms and culinary tradition.
“The methods we use to prepare lobster at the festival follow widely accepted and legal culinary practices that have been in place in homes, restaurants, and seafood festivals across the globe for generations,” the statement said. “To date, Maine’s laws do not prohibit the traditional preparation of lobster, and the state has not recognized boiling or steaming lobsters as a violation of its animal welfare laws.”
Festival officials also pushed back on the claim that lobsters are definitively sentient. While acknowledging that some research points to the possibility, they argued there is “no conclusive scientific consensus that lobsters feel pain in a way comparable to mammals” and noted that Maine law does not recognize lobsters as sentient beings protected by cruelty statutes.
Addressing PETA’s claim of public disruption, the organizers added: “To our knowledge, we have not received any complaints from local residents about this issue. No one is required to view or participate in the lobster cooking process, there are plenty of other sites to see at our event.”
This year’s Maine Lobster Festival is scheduled to run from Wednesday, July 30, through Sunday, August 3.
