Crab Cakes or Cockapoo Cakes? PETA’s Ferry Ad Blitz Says There’s No Difference
For Immediate Release:
August 6, 2024
Contact:
Maddy Missett 202-483-7382
Riders on the M/V Martha’s Vineyard ferry may feel some pier pressure, courtesy of PETA’s latest messaging blitz that asks travelers, “If you wouldn’t eat your dog, why eat a crab?” The appeal is designed to get people thinking about how crabs and dogs are the same in all the ways that count—from feeling joy and pain to bonding with their loved ones—and asks everyone to please go vegan to show respect to ocean life. PETA’s message may be the last ad seen on the ferry for the foreseeable future following reports that The Steamship Authority will no longer accept any new advertising contracts after fishers complained about another pro-vegan ad that the group placed on the Woods Hole ferry earlier this year.
“Just like the dogs we share our homes with, crabs are smart, sensitive individuals who don’t deserve to be ripped from their ocean homes and torn to pieces,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk, a vegan for over 50 years. “PETA urges The Steamship Authority to stop stifling free speech via its new policy, asks anyone disturbed by the thought of ripping the legs off a Labrador to show compassion to all animals, and has free vegan starter kits for anyone ready to make the switch.”
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 there’s no need to eat crabs or other sea life with so many tasty vegan seafood options—including Good Catch Plant-Based Crab Cakes and Gardein Mini Cr’b Cakes—sold in grocery stores and online. Animal-friendly options are also available in more restaurants than ever before, including The Pawnee House in Oak Bluffs, which serves vegan crab cakes.
PETA’s new message will appear in six locations on the second deck of the ferry between Martha’s Vineyard and Woods Hole through October 31.
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.
