Nearly Nude ‘Lobster’ to Urge “Red Death” Festivalgoers to be Kind to Crustaceans

For Immediate Release:
July 27, 2026

Contact:
Sara Groves 202-483-7382

Just outside the main entrance of the Maine Lobster Festival on Wednesday, a woman body-painted as a lobster will lie across a giant dish, next to a lemon wedge and butter, reading, “Try to Relate to Who’s on Your Plate.” The display will urge attendees to skip the carnage inside the festival—where around 16,000 lobsters will be steamed alive—and instead of taking a life for a fleeting taste, go vegan.

PETA has also sent a letter to festival Board of Directors President Celia Knight asking her to rename the cruel spectacle “The Red Death Festival”—because that’s precisely what it is for the thousands of lobsters who turn red as they’re steamed to death each year—and replace events such as the lobster-eating contest with attractions designed to inspire empathy for lobsters, such as enduring increasingly high temperatures in “The Heat Challenge.”

“The Maine Lobster Festival celebrates the torment and massacre of thousands of sentient animals, who feel pain as keenly as any dog, cat, or child,” says PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk. “No meal is worth such cruelty, and PETA urges everyone to show compassion to all sea life by going vegan.”

Where:             Intersection of Myrtle Street and Main Street, Rockland

When:              Wednesday, July 29, 12 noon

Why:                 Like humans, lobsters can recognize other individual lobsters, carry their babies for about nine months, and can live over 100 years. They also have complex nervous systems and feel intense pain when dismembered or boiled alive, which one researcher described as “torture.” PETA’s website features a list of the best vegan seafood brands and a free vegan starter kit for anyone thinking of making the switch.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—points out that when it comes to the ability to feel pain, hunger, and fear, a lobster is a dog is a boy. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.