Lobster Liberation Nets PETA Appeal for Vegan Vittles

Scales Restaurant Releases ‘Cotton Candy’ Lobster Into the Bay: PETA Suggests New Faux-Lobster Entrée Addition to Menu

For Immediate Release:
August 10, 2018

Contact:
David Perle 202-540-2194

Portland’s Scales Restaurant has released Blue Betty, a unique “cotton candy-colored” lobster, back into Casco Bay, stating that she was “too interesting” to cook and noting her “feisty” personality. In response, PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—says that every lobster is interesting and has sent the restaurant’s executive chef a letter today thanking him for the restaurant’s act of kindness and suggesting that the establishment add a Blue Betty–inspired vegan lobster entrée to the menu.

“All lobsters deserve to live in their aquatic homes, free from the pain and terror of being boiled alive, and families who include vegans want to eat out together,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA is happy to help Scales honor Blue Betty’s beauty and unique personality by creating a vegan lobster dish for the many diners who would like to see all lobsters released.”

PETA’s letter to Scales Restaurant Executive Chef Fred Eliot follows.

August 10, 2018

Fred Eliot
Executive Chef
Scales Restaurant

Dear Mr. Eliot,

Greetings from PETA. I’m writing to thank Scales Restaurant for sparing the “cotton candy” lobster you named Blue Betty! We have a suggestion: In order to appeal to anyone who would like all lobsters to be released and therefore doesn’t eat at your establishment—including family members of patrons—would you please add a faux-lobster dish to your menu? Doing so would only increase business, and we’d be the first to book a table for our local members!

You may not know that lobsters—no matter their color, size, or sex—enjoy companionship, develop relationships with each other much as humans do, and even show affection by holding “hands.” Of course, they also experience pain—just as all other animals do—which they show by whipping their bodies around wildly and scraping at the sides of the pot when dropped into scalding water. Because of this, attitudes about boiling or broiling lobsters alive are changing all over the world. Switzerland recently banned the practice of killing lobsters without stunning them first, and Norway and New Zealand have implemented increased protections for them.

We hope to hear that you’ll extend your consideration for Blue Betty to others by adding a tasty vegan lobster entrée to your menu. We have recipes if you’d like to create a house-made dish, and we have suppliers we can connect you with if you’d like ready-made lobster “meat.” We hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

Danielle Katz
Director
PETA