{"id":163,"date":"2019-01-09T16:15:06","date_gmt":"2019-01-09T20:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/?p=163"},"modified":"2019-01-09T16:18:38","modified_gmt":"2019-01-09T20:18:38","slug":"petas-attack-on-seafood-restaurant-backfires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/2019\/01\/09\/petas-attack-on-seafood-restaurant-backfires\/","title":{"rendered":"PETA\u2019s Attack on Seafood Restaurant Backfires"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By John M. Simpson.<\/p>\n<p>Last fall, we <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/2018\/09\/07\/seafood-restaurant-takes-on-peta\/\">reported<\/a>\u00a0on a situation in Baltimore, Maryland, in which a local, family-owned seafood restaurant decided to resist a campaign by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) against steamed crabs.\u00a0 PETA purchased a billboard advertisement in which a Maryland crab proclaimed \u201cI\u2019m ME, not MEAT.\u00a0 See the individual.\u00a0 Go Vegan.\u201d\u00a0 PETA believes that crabs feel pain and that the method of boiling them alive is inhumane.\u00a0 Since crabs are invertebrates, whether they feel pain or just demonstrate a reflex action is debatable.\u00a0 The science is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usnews.com\/news\/articles\/2013\/01\/16\/cruelty-to-crustaceans-crabs-lobsters-may-feel-pain\">not conclusive<\/a> on this point.<\/p>\n<p>Seeing PETA\u2019s move as an assault on the entire Maryland crab industry, a local establishment which has sold steamed crabs for decades decided enough was enough, stood up and took the animal rights group on.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Jimmy\u2019s Famous Seafood responded with its own billboard asserting:\u00a0 &#8220;SteaMEd crabs.\u00a0 Here to stay.\u00a0 Get Famous.&#8221;\u00a0 In addition, Jimmy\u2019s trolled PETA on Twitter with humorous effect with hashtags like &#8220;#SteamThemAll.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/lifestyle\/magazine\/a-longtime-baltimore-restaurant-beefed-with-peta-over-crabs-who-won\/2019\/01\/04\/16fdbd3a-ff41-11e8-83c0-b06139e540e5_story.html?utm_term=.1fb135ff5b41\">reported<\/a> recently in the <em>Washington Post<\/em>, PETA\u2019s attack on Jimmy\u2019s backfired.\u00a0 The attention generated by the kerfuffle simply enhanced the company\u2019s business.\u00a0 Jimmy\u2019s followers on Twitter have evidently swelled to more than 100,000.\u00a0 The company\u2019s online business also has apparently tripled over this time last year.\u00a0 The parking lot outside the establishment had to be expanded to accommodate the extra staff needed to\u00a0 handle the increase in orders.\u00a0 Jimmy\u2019s has reported that the public response to its stiff-arm of PETA was overwhelmingly supportive.\u00a0 As its owner was quoted as remarking:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Every sales email we get, every cold call, people say, \u201ckeep kicking PETA\u2019s ass.\u201d\u00a0 \u2026 They changed our life.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In the meantime, PETA\u2019s billboard has apparently come down, and the sound of pounding crab mallets continues all across Maryland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By John M. Simpson. Last fall, we reported\u00a0on a situation in Baltimore, Maryland, in which a local, family-owned seafood restaurant decided to resist a campaign by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) against steamed crabs.\u00a0 PETA purchased a billboard advertisement in which a Maryland crab proclaimed \u201cI\u2019m ME, not MEAT.\u00a0 See the individual.\u00a0 &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/2019\/01\/09\/petas-attack-on-seafood-restaurant-backfires\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;PETA\u2019s Attack on Seafood Restaurant Backfires&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":317,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,240,241,5,101,45,242],"ppma_author":[697],"class_list":["post-163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-animal-law","tag-crab","tag-invertebrate","tag-john-simpson","tag-people-for-the-ethical-treatment-of-animals","tag-peta","tag-seafood"],"authors":[{"term_id":697,"user_id":317,"is_guest":0,"slug":"jmsimpson","display_name":"John M. Simpson","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38\/2018\/06\/simpsonjohn-125x150.jpg","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/317"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}