Whole Foods bans sale of live lobsters

In an article headed, "Lobster's Liberation" the Friday, June 16, Atlanta Journal-Constitution (pg 5f) tells us "Whole Foods Market Inc. will stop selling live lobsters, effective today, out of concern for the humane treatment of the animals."

Margaret Wittenberg, from Whole Foods, is quoted: "At this time, we believe it is too difficult to maintain consistent conditions throughout the entire supply chain to ensure the health and well-being of lobsters outside their natural environment for such a long period of time. Many lobsters are held in storage facilities for several months."

And we read:

"Animal rights groups endorsed the move, saying live shellfish are routinely starved and kept in cruel conditions in grocery stores."

An article in Tuesday's Austin American-Statesman also quoted Whole Foods spokesperson Kate Lowery who said, "It's ultimately how they're handled by the consumer after they go home that's a concern."

Whereas some places in the world have banned boiling lobsters alive, that is still the most common method of killing them in the USA. Check out http://www.lobsterlib.com to learn more.

You can read the full Atlanta Journal-constitution piece on line at http://www.ajc.com/living/content/living/stories/0616lvlobster.html and respond to the AJC at http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/letters/sendletter.html

Since the Associated Press piece came out this morning, the story is likely to be in more papers tomorrow -- perhaps in your local paper. If it is, please send a letter in support of the Wholefoods decision and about the way modern human society treats animals being used for food. Vegetarians can use this opportunity to sing the praises of plant-based diets. Even if the story does not appear in your local paper, you can use this information about the Whole Foods decision to respond to any article, even a restaurant review or recipe, featuring lobster. If you have any difficulty finding the correct email address for a letter to your editor I am happy to help, and I am always happy to edit letters. The shorter they are, the more likely to be published. And always include your full name, address, and phone number so the paper can call you to verify that you sent the letter.

A note on Whole Foods: I know many activists on this list wish that Whole Foods sold no animal products at all. John Mackey, the founder and CEO, who is now vegan, also wishes that were possible. But when I interviewed Mackey for KPFK's Watchdog Radio (You can listen to that interview on line at http://www.watchdogradio.com/Pages/Humane_Labeling.html ) he explained that since about 5% of Whole Foods customers are vegetarian, that change would simply assure that Whole Foods went out of business. He prefers to use the company to advance animal welfare standards, and to advance the proliferation of vegan eating by offering a bountiful array of delicious vegan products to tempt the conscientious carnivores the store attracts. Without feeling that they are able to turn their store vegan, Whole Foods management chose to do what they could to at least end this particular horror, and I hope animal advocates will send them thanks.

Whole Foods takes comments at: http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/contact/contact.html


(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. You are encouraged to forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts but please do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this tag line.)