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Local Seafood Supplier Honours Lobsters With Deep Respect & Compassion |
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Written by D.L. McCracken
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Tuesday, 20 June 2006 |
Responding to Whole Foods Market Inc.'s decision to ban the sale of live lobsters and crabs on the grounds that it's inhumane, Bedford's Clearwater Seafoods Ltd. has entered into a new partnership with the natural food chain to supply "humanely produced" and deeply respected lobsters.
Whole Foods, a Texas-based business offering all natural food products began to research the suspected suffering of lobsters from time of catch to point of sale and determined that lobsters and other crustaceans do indeed experience pain and suffering. The natural food giant went so far as to construct "lobster condos" in some of their retail stores but determined quickly that living the high life in luxurious condos was not conducive to the rugged bottom-dwelling arthropod's natural lifestyle.
After seven months of intense research and study and to the delight of various animal activist groups including PETA, Whole Foods made the decision to immediately cease accepting live lobsters and other shellfish from their suppliers stating the company could not guarantee the creatures were receiving the compassion and respect that they so obviously deserved.
A PETA spokesperson in applauding the decision compared the treatment of live lobsters to higher lifeforms by saying, "The ways that lobsters are treated would warrant felony cruelty to animals charges if they were dogs or cats." PETA has long maintained that lobsters feel excruciating agony at the moment of being plunged head-first into a pot of boiling water.
Not everyone agrees with PETA's supposition including a large segment of the scientific community who maintain that lobsters are equipped with basic primitive nervous systems and because their brains are the size of a grasshopper's brain, simply cannot feel and process pain in the same way a human would.
Clearwater Seafoods has been selected by Whole Foods to supply "humanely produced raw and cooked frozen lobster products" and describes Clearwater as the sole seafood wholesaler that meets their new strict criteria. Clearwater spokesman Colin MacDonald said that his company shares "many of the same core values as Whole Foods Market", values that demand a "deep respect for the lobster."
People for The Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has been closely associated with the research conducted by Whole Foods and claims victory in the company's decision to ban live lobster sales. On PETA's "Lobster Liberation" website, the animal liberation group warns consumers that eating lobster is "dangerous to your health" because of high levels of PCBs, lead, arsenic and mercury that can be found in the shellfish.
If toxic lobsters aren't enough to convince consumers to cross them off their grocery lists, comparing the creatures to humans just might. The Lobster Liberation website describes the life of a lobster in human terms such as discussing the anthropod's "childhood" and "awkward adolescence"; a nine-month gestational period and their assertion that lobsters take vacations.
The website encourages everyone to become a "lobster libber" and offers several ways in which one can "crusade for crustaceans" including rescuing live lobsters from display tanks and setting them free. The U.S.-based Center for Consumer Freedom has long maintained that PETA is only one animal activist organization that pursues "total animal liberation" which states in part that all animal ownership including owning cats and dogs, must be abolished.
PETA is congratulating Whole Foods on their decision to ban sales of live lobsters and points out that the company has previously banned the sale of foie gras and eggs from all non-free range environments.
Another campaign previously initiated by PETA concerned the exploitation of the silk worm. The activist group charged that the silk industry was contributing to the "unnecessary pain and suffering of these sometimes tiny, often complex, feeling beings." |
