How You Can Help Lobsters in Grocery Stores

Imagine being pulled out of your home, spending weeks or months trapped in a crowded glass box, unable to escape, with strangers piled on top of you and no way to escape. That’s what life is like for lobsters in grocery stores. Here’s what you can do to help crustaceans in distress.

What Happens to the Live Lobsters You See in Grocery Stores?

Lobsters can live for more than 150 years. In nature, lobsters explore their surroundings, travel up to 100 miles a year, and communicate with one another using complex signals. But each year,  tens of millions of lobsters are trapped and pulled out of their ocean homes so they can be sold, boiled alive, and eaten.

No lobster exists to end up on someone’s plate.

Instead of spending their lives traversing vast stretches of ocean, lobsters in grocery stores endure chronic stress, low oxygen levels, and a lengthy, agonizing death that they feel with acute sensitivity because their bodies can’t go into shock.

A PETA eyewitness documented that workers at a Linda Bean’s Maine Lobster slaughterhouse tore live lobsters and crabs limb from limb, ripped their heads off, impaled individuals on spikes, dumped them into boiling water, and abused them in other ways.

When dropped into scalding water, lobsters whip their bodies, desperately trying to escape.

Marine biologists agreed that there’s no humane way to kill these sensitive individuals.

What Should You Do if You See Live Lobsters in Grocery Stores?

When you encounter live lobsters confined in tanks, speaking up can make a difference. To help lobsters in grocery stores:

• Speak with the owner or manager. Politely (but firmly) let them know that confining individuals to a tank and then boiling them alive is exceptionally cruel. If the business is willing to relinquish the animals to you (without replacing them), contact PETA for guidance.
  
  You can adapt the following message when speaking with or emailing store management:
  
  “I’m concerned about the live lobsters in your store. Many shoppers are disturbed by lobster tanks because they know lobsters are intelligent, sensitive individuals who suffer from stress, crowding, and feel everything when they’re boiled alive. Please stop selling live lobsters.”
• Ask for the manager’s card or email address and send a follow-up email with more information and videos. Have your friends and family contact the business as well.
• If a tank is excessively crowded or if you see any dead lobsters or crabs, complain to the city or county health department.
• Write letters to the editors of local publications explaining that all animals deserve our consideration. See the PETA Guide for letter-writing tips.
• Hand out free literature specific to sea life near grocery stores or restaurants that sell live lobsters.

Take Action for Lobsters Today

Every lobster in a grocery store tank is an individual who was torn from the ocean, deprived of freedom, and condemned to a painful death. By speaking up, documenting neglect, and educating others, you can help live lobsters in grocery stores and encourage businesses to stop exploiting sea animals who want to live.