Leading Food-Service Provider Drops Linda Bean’s Maine Lobster Over Cruelty Issues
PETA Exposé Showing Live Crustaceans as They’re Being Torn Apart and Boiled Alive Prompts Move by Delaware North
For Immediate Release:
July 8, 2014
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
Buffalo-based food-service provider Delaware North Companies Sportservice—which oversees concessions at hundreds of ballparks, stadiums, and other facilities across the U.S.—has just ordered a menu change at Target Field, home of the Minnesota Twins, and TD Garden, home of the Boston Celtics and Bruins. That’s because after receiving information from PETA about Linda Bean’s Maine Lobster (LBML)—a supplier for the venues and the subject of a recent PETA eyewitness investigation that revealed that lobsters and crabs were writhing in pain after being mutilated—Delaware North Companies Sportservice President John Wentzell gave PETA written assurance that the two venues will stop buying lobster from the company. Although more modern and less painful systems for slaughtering lobsters and crabs are available, Bean continues to use crude and cruel methods that cause agonizing deaths for millions of crustaceans.
“Delaware North learned about the painful killing methods used at Linda Bean’s Maine Lobster and dropped the company,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “Smart companies know that consumers object to the unnecessary suffering of animals killed for food, so Bean should be prepared to lose even more customers as word gets out.”
In PETA’s footage, LBML workers are shown slamming live crabs’ faces onto spikes to break off their top shells and then pressing their exposed organs and flesh against stiff bristles. Lobsters have their legs, heads, and shells torn off while they’re fully conscious and sensible to pain, and they remain alive long after they’ve been dismembered.
Delaware North oversees concessions at more than 50 major and minor league sporting arenas and manages food outlets at more than 25 airports. It operates at 300 locations in the U.S. and abroad and serves 500 million guests a year.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.
