PETA Urges Governor to Use Closed Sardine Cannery to Can Blueberries

Group Wants Baldacci to Deep-Six Cruel Plan to Process Lobsters

For Immediate Release:
April 19, 2010

Contact:
Ashley Byrne  757-622-7382

Bangor, Maine -- Today, PETA sent an urgent letter to Maine Gov. John Baldacci calling on him to help sink plans to convert the now-closed Stinson Seafood plant--a former sardine cannery in Prospect Harbor--into a processing plant for lobsters and other sea animals and instead convert it into a blueberry cannery, since Maine is the nation's leading producer of blueberries. According to news reports, a seafood-processing company has signed a nonbinding letter of intent to buy the plant from its owner, Bumble Bee Foods. In the letter, PETA points out that lobsters are bright animals who feel pain, remember past acquaintances, and deserve respect.

"Lobsters and sardines both deserve a reprieve," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "Investing in a plant that cans berries instead of living beings would save countless sea animals' lives and pay Mainers dividends for years to come."

For more information, please visit PETA.org

PETA's letter to Maine Gov. John Baldacci follows.

April 19, 2010

The Honorable John Baldacci
Governor of Maine

Dear Governor Baldacci:

I am writing on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the world's largest animal rights organization, with more than 2 million members and supporters. We have a suggestion that could save the jobs of some of the workers at the closed Stinson Sardine Cannery in Prospect Harbor and save the lives of countless sea animals: Can the cruelty, and turn Stinson into a cannery for Maine's famous wild blueberries instead.

Selling the Stinson cannery to a lobster- and fish-processing company, as you're reportedly pushing for, would condemn countless animals to painful deaths. People didn't always know what we know today--that lobsters and fish are smart, sensitive, and unique individuals who should be respected, not killed and canned. Perhaps you are unaware that lobsters can live to be more than 100 years old. They recognize individual lobsters, remember past acquaintances, have elaborate courtship rituals, and help guide young lobsters across the ocean floor by holding claws. Fish have impressive long-term memories and sophisticated social structures, and some use tools. They learn by watching what other fish do, and they can recognize individual "shoal" mates. Scientists at Stanford University say that fish have the reasoning capacity of small children.

Ichthyologists and marine researchers who are not funded by the fishing industry all agree that lobsters and fish feel pain. These animals suffer when they are caught in traps, snagged on hooks, or crushed in massive nets and pulled from their ocean homes. Lobsters who are boiled alive thrash wildly and scrape the sides of the pot, trying to escape. In the journal Science, researcher Gordon Gunter described this method of killing lobsters as "unnecessary torture."

I urge you not to promote the sale of the Stinson Sardine Cannery to a company that will kill more animals and to instead use it to package Maine's abundant wild blueberries, which are rich in vitamins and healthy for man and beast. In the spirit of our president--and for the sake of the animals and the workers of Maine--please declare, "Yes, we can (blueberries)."

Please contact me to discuss this important issue further. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,
Tracy Reiman
Executive Vice President