ROCKLAND, Maine - An undercover video shot at a lobster and crab processing plant in Rockland shows workers ripping the heads and claws off live lobsters and crabs in apparent violation of state laws against cruelty to animals.
A whistleblower tipped off the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in August that questionable methods were being used at Linda Bean's Perfect Maine company. Dan Paden, a PETA spokesman, said a member of the group then got a job there and used a hidden video camera.
"The video shows lobsters and crabs being ripped apart while they are alive and fully conscious, and able to feel pain," he said.
The company did not return calls for comment. According to PETA, some other Maine seafood processors use humane killing methods. It plans to ask law enforcement officials to investigate.
A study commissioned by the European Union concluded that 10-legged crustaceans such as lobsters and crabs are able to feel pain.
"That scientific panel classified lobsters and crabs in the same category of animals as dogs and cats - that is, as animals who can feel pain, and should be protected from unnecessary pain," he said.
The video represents the first-ever behind-the-scenes look at procedures in these types of processing facilities about which, countrywide, not much is publicly known, Paden said. PETA tried unsuccessfully to talk with the company about using one of two more humane commercial killing techniques, he said.
"Maine law prohibits intentionally mutilating any live creature, including crustaceans," he said. "It criminalizes killing an animal by a means that does not cause instantaneous death."
PETA advocates a vegan lifestyle and says the best way to keep crabs and lobster from suffering is to stop eating them. In this case, Paden said, the organization is calling for at least a switch to a slaughter method that would rapidly stun and kill the creatures.
The video is online at cbsnews.com.
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By S.E. Smith for Yes! Magazine.
Broadcast version by Suzanne Potter for California News Service reporting for the Yes! Magazine-Public News Service Collaboration
In May, LA Animal Services Kennel Supervisor Leslie Corea, who had been working in animal welfare for two decades, was attacked by Brie, a 63-pound dog that had been exhibiting signs of fear, anxiety, and stress. When Corea went into a kennel at Harbor Shelter in San Pedro, California, to care for Brie, the dog went for her leg and, according to Corea, “started fighting me like crazy.” Though Corea screamed for help, a volunteer said the shelter was overcrowded and understaffed, so there was no one close enough to respond to her cries.
“It does affect the dogs when they are caged like that, without getting walks, or exercise or any stimulation or any human contact,” the volunteer told NBC Los Angeles. “It’s not natural for them to live like that. It’s inhumane.”
Corea, who underwent three surgeries for the injuries she sustained in the attack, left the field after the incident, but the incident still highlights the consequences of the crowding crisis spreading through animal shelters in the U.S.—and as a geographically, culturally, and socioeconomically diverse state, California’s approach to this overcrowding crisis could be an incubator for other states facing similar issues.
“We are very overcrowded right now,” an animal control officer in Southern California who asked to remain anonymous tells YES!. “It’s resulted in a dangerous working environment, not just for staff but for the people who have to do business in the shelter, the public, the volunteers, our own animals. We’re having to jam them into cages with other animals. Sometimes there’s fights, or they’re not being cleaned as often as they should be.”
Data organization Shelter Animals Count estimates 256 shelters and rescues in California took in 391, 204 community animals in 2023, with 69,988 non-live outcomes such as euthanasia or unassisted death in care and 302,698 live outcomes, including adoption, transfer, and return to owner. The remainder are still in the care of shelters, rescues, or fosters.
Lisa Young, a veteran of animal welfare and executive director of Rescue Train, a Los Angeles–based organization, describes the current situation as “the worst I’ve ever seen.” It has been compounded by the state’s growing housing crisis, inflation of food and veterinary costs, a shortage of access to veterinary care, and the dramatic fall in spay/neuter services during the early pandemic.
A 2024 report from Hills Pet Nutrition looking at national trends found 43 percent of respondents cited costs as a concern for prospective adopters, with people making less than $75,000 annually experiencing increased financial barriers. Vet care in particular is a serious issue, according to the report, which identifies a growing number of veterinary “deserts” where care is not simply not available at any price.
“In East Valley,” a shelter Rescue Train partners with, “they have animals in crates in the hallways,” Young shares. “It’s disgusting, it’s inhumane. I’ve never seen animals in the hallways living in crates.” Young is quick to note that this is not the fault of shelter workers, who are “just here trying to clean up the mess of our community,” but is instead a symptom of how dire the issue is.
Nina Thompson, director of public relations at the San Diego Humane Society, which operates a shelter that also manages animal care services contracts from 13 cities in San Diego County, explains that overcrowding has serious consequences for shelter animals. “Any time that you have too many animals in kennels, there are disease outbreaks, and also the stress of sitting in a kennel for long periods of time increases with time.”
San Diego Humane is experiencing an uptick in upper respiratory illnesses and a rise in the number of “behavior dogs” who are not coping well with life in the kennels, especially young, large dogs with high energy who aren’t getting adequate exercise and enrichment. Length of stay for at least 100 dogs at the shelter was more than three months, and large dogs across the state and country are similarly lingering longer in shelters. Shelter Animals Count reports the median length of stay for large dogs has doubled since 2019.
Organizations such as Human Animal Support Services, founded in 2020 by Austin Pets Alive! and a coalition of animal welfare partners, propose investing resources in keeping animals out of shelters altogether. Shelter intervention programs, a relatively recent innovation in animal welfare, include pet food pantries, free and low-cost veterinary care, spay/neuter programs, help with pet deposits and landlord disputes, behavior counseling, and assistance with self-rehoming.
Models that approach animal sheltering as part of a larger community care program are working; San Diego Humane, for example, has managed to fulfill its pledge to “Stay at zero,” with no euthanasia of healthy, treatable animals. Pasadena Humane’s More Than a Shelter program has been similarly successful.
High-volume spay/neuter, which streamlines surgical processes to alter as many animals as possible while still maintaining quality, may also be a part of the solution. This approach involves coordination to keep animals constantly moving through the various stages of surgery, from initial induction to recovery. It’s particularly valuable for managing community cat populations and can be done as a mobile or pop-up event to eliminate barriers such as transport and travel.
Related community clinics such as that at Sonoma Humane can also decrease barriers to access to veterinary care; on a tour of the facility in August, staff highlighted the clinic’s critical role in keeping pets and people together by providing affordable vet care to families who might otherwise surrender their animals.
However, shelters are in critical need of more funding to reduce intake, administer these creative community programs, and safely house the animals who will inevitably need care. While there are some grant programs such as those offered by Maddie’s Fund or California for All Animals, a state-funded program administered by the University of California, Davis’ Koret Shelter Medicine Program, it hasn’t been enough to meet the need.
Increasing government contracts (which can seem large as budget line items—in San Francisco, Animal Care and Control received $10 million in the $14.6 billion 2022-2023 budget) could help shelters expand their services and capacity.
And, Young argues, more philanthropists need to open their pockets: Despite a growing awareness of the beneficial role pets play in our lives, a Giving USA report found that just 3 percent of philanthropy in 2020 went to the environment and animals, a small slice of the $471.44 billion donated by individuals, foundations, corporations, and bequests. “Of all the money donated in this country”—a nation of animal lovers with 90 million dogs and 74 million cats, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association—“and with all these foundations closing, it’s a scary time.”
Community buy-in is also key to any solution, says Lisa Kauffman, a campaign strategist at Best Friends Animal Society. She’s working on the We Are 90 for Riverside County campaign, which is pressuring county officials to improve conditions at three municipal shelters, including “one of the highest-intake shelters in the United States.” The grassroots campaign encourages residents to show up at community meetings and includes extensive Spanish-language outreach to connect with stakeholders who are sometimes overlooked.
An engaged community doesn’t just adopt animals and create more space in shelters for animals who vitally need it. It’s also more likely to foster, getting vulnerable animals such as neonates, seniors, and long-stay dogs out of the shelter and into homes where they can decompress and experience socialization. Large foster programs are especially valuable for rescues, which can serve the community without a physical shelter location. In addition to fostering, community members who volunteer also relieve pressure on underfunded, overcrowded shelters and their staff.
For California’s animals, this moment may feel bleak, but, Young says, “like any storm, it will pass.” They just need a helping hand, from lawmakers drafting policies that help animals such as AB 2216, which would restrict “no pets” housing policies, to the workers who creatively utilize resources for the animals in their care, to the volunteers who show up every day, rain or shine.
S.E. Smith wrote this article for Yes! Magazine.
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture is investigating a bird flu outbreak at an Arkansas broiler operation in Clay County as well as in some backyard flocks across the state.
According to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, close to 230,000 birds have been exposed to the HPAI virus.
Jada Thompson, associate professor of agricultural economics and agribusiness at the University of Arkansas, said conditions in poultry facilities contribute to the spread of the illness.
"The breeding systems prolong the cost of the disease outbreak and prolongs the replenishment of that system," Thompson explained. "When we start talking about the disease outbreak, it's not even just the direct impact and the biological lag to replenishment, but it's also the multiplicative impact in terms of further upstream on that system."
Since December, birds have tested positive in seven counties across Arkansas including Sharp, Craighead and Lafayette.
As bird flu cases increase across the country, consumers are seeing higher prices at grocery stores. Thompson said the outbreaks also create financial strains for the agriculture industry, forcing companies to adjust their business practices in some cases.
"These practices have to go into place and those are additional costs," Thompson pointed out. "There's additional costs for the monitoring and surveillance, for the cleaning and disinfections. There's additional costs for the testing, and that's going to be to the producer, to the integrator, to the government officials to the testing labs."
The outbreak is being monitored by the Arkansas Department of Agriculture, Game and Fish Commission and the Arkansas Department of Public Health.
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