Connecticut Tigers’ Name Change Prompts PETA Appeal

Respect Lobsters’ Lives, Says Group to Baseball Team Set to Become the New England Lobster Rolls

For Immediate Release:
June 7, 2018

Contact:
Audrey Shircliff 202-483-7382

After learning of the Connecticut Tigers’ plan to change its name to the New England Lobster Rolls—and to host a game-night exhibition featuring live lobsters—PETA sent a letter today urging the minor league baseball team to respect lobsters, not put them on display or encourage fans to eat them. A PETA investigation of a lobster slaughterhouse in Maine revealed that live lobsters were torn apart limb from limb before being left in bins to die in agony.

“Like any other living being, lobsters feel pain, value their own lives, and don’t want to be boiled alive—or exhibited in a ballpark in front of rowdy crowds,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on this baseball team not to make a joke of animals’ lives.”

PETA’s motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat.” For more information, please visit PETA.org.

PETA’s letter to Connecticut Tigers Senior Vice President C.J. Knudsen follows.

June 7, 2018

C.J. Knudsen

Senior Vice President

Connecticut Tigers

Dear Mr. Knudsen,

On behalf of PETA and our more than 6.5 million members and supporters worldwide, I’m writing to express concern over the Connecticut Tigers’ plan to celebrate New England Night in July by taking to the field as the “New England Lobster Rolls” while also hosting an interactive exhibit that features live lobsters. We urge you to cancel your plan to put lobsters on display and to show respect for these animals rather than making a joke of their suffering.

There is nothing to celebrate about the deaths of these sensitive, feeling animals, who are often cut, dismembered, or boiled alive. Scientists have determined that lobsters feel pain—just like cats, dogs, chickens, and humans do. They’re intelligent beings who enjoy their freedom, and when they’re kept in tanks, they suffer from stress associated with confinement. Taking them to a baseball stadium—which is a far cry from their natural environment—for an event that makes light of their suffering will cause undue strain on these sensitive animals.

Around the world, more people have become aware that lobsters feel pain and suffer. In Switzerland, for example, it’s now illegal to boil these animals without stunning them first. Norway and New Zealand have implemented increased protections for them, and Italy’s highest court ruled that restaurant kitchens must not keep live lobsters on ice because it causes them to suffer unjustifiably.

We hope to have your assurance that your team won’t put lobsters—your aquatic neighbors—on display and will instead celebrate their lives, not their deaths. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Tracy Reiman

Executive Vice President