An animal rights group barged into a lobster boil party in Brooklyn yesterday, shouting, holding signs, climbing on tables and dousing one another in "blood." Collectively Free, the group behind yesterday's demonstration, crashed The Great Brooklyn Lobster Boil at The Landing at Industry City—a $60 per ticket event featuring lobsters cooked on-site—calling out the event for "speciesism" and "lobster torture."
Chanting "Her whole life, your one meal, lobsters feel, lobsters feel" and "If you want to get some peace, let the lobster torture cease," over two dozen protestors acted out the moments of the lobster's death, screaming and, confusingly, pouring blood on each other. As security attempted to corral the group, one member climbed on a table where people were eating, eventually getting pulled down. It's unclear whether the person who pulled the protestor down was affiliated with Industry City or one of the many surprised, bib-clad patrons attending the event.
Officials from Industry City were not immediately available for comment.
(video clips courtesy of Collectively Free)
"We hope that by getting people to stop and think about what is actually going on and by pointing out that science tells us that lobsters' bodies don't go into shock, we will plant a seed in their heads about how our choices affect animals," co-organizer Bobby McCullough said in a statement.
A recent study purported to prove that animals like lobsters, crabs and shrimp were capable of feeling pain, an idea seized on by the activists. Outside the event, the group put on a performance action dubbed "Swap Speciesism," where a lobster appears to boil a human alive in a pot.
Collectively Free has staged several high-profile actions recently, including a controversial protest at St. Patrick's Cathedral and as part of a larger group rallying outside of Chick-fil-A. Last week, a different group staged a protest outside the Madison Square Park Shake Shack, calling out animal suffering for human consumption.
In other news, the latest Radiolab episode basically proves that trees and fungus are essentially carnivores, so that's something to think about.
