Pier Pressure! PETA’s Boardwalk Blitz Bombards Tourists With Wake-Up Call About Eating Crabs

For Immediate Release:
August 27, 2024

Contact:
Maddy Missett 202-483-7382

Atlantic City, N.J. –

Seafood-seeking sightseers on the Atlantic City Boardwalk are in for a sound awakening this month,as PETA has plastered the promenade near shellfish-centric restaurants with almost 100 digital messages that ask, “If You Wouldn’t Eat a Dog, Why Eat a Crab?” The appeal, which includes audio of a whimpering dog, asks diners to think about how decapods and dogs are the same in all the ways that count—and value their lives—and urges everyone to show some consideration to crustaceans by choosing vegan vittles.

Street with multiple billboards featuring a photo of a crab with a dog's head superimposed over them. Text reads "If you wouldn't eat your dog, why eat a crab?" — Credit: PETA

“When it comes to feeling pain and fear, a crab is no different from a dog or a human and doesn’t want to be boiled alive and torn limb from limb any more than we would,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk, a vegan for over 50 years. “PETA encourages anyone who wouldn’t dream of chowing down on a Chihuahua to extend that empathy to all animals and please leave them off their plates.”

In nature, crabs care attentively for their young, keep their homes clean, and defend neighboring crabs’ burrows against intruders. Captured crabs feel agonizing pain when their legs are damaged or torn off by workers who quickly rip them from fishing nets. Some mutilated crabs—who need their claws to feed and defend themselves—are tossed back into the ocean, where they suffer and die. The “survivors” end up in pots of scalding-hot water, where they’re boiled or steamed alive.

PETA points out that with so many tasty vegan seafood options available today—including Good Catch Plant-Based Crab Cakes and Gardein Mini Cr’b Cakes—there’s no need to eat crabs or any other sea life. PETA offers a free vegan starter kit for anyone looking to make the switch.

PETA’s message can be found on 98 digital billboards along the Atlantic City Boardwalk, near LandShark Bar & Grill, Chickie’s & Pete’s, and Bungalow Beach AC.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.