PETA Accuses Maine Seafood Processor of Animal Cruelty

Officials in Maine are standing their ground amid fresh accusations from the animal rights group PETA, which contends that a leading seafood processor in the state is subjecting lobsters and crabs to animal cruelty.

An undercover video shot by a PETA operative shows seafood factory workers dismembering live lobsters and ripping the shells from live crabs by slamming them mouth-first into a hook. PETA alleges the crustaceans are "dying agonizing deaths at this facility."

Lobsters' claws and tails are torn off, and the remaining carcasses, which are shown still moving in the video, are discarded. Crabs' shells are removed and their innards are swept away by spinning metal bristles before the still-living crabs are put in boiling water.

Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher called the PETA video a "disingenuous attempt to advance their agenda and negatively impact Maine's most important coastal industry and the economy it supports."

According to The Portland Press Herald, Keliher consulted with state biologists and concluded that the processing methods shown in the video is "compliant with state and federal laws and regulations, including Maine's animal-welfare statute."

An attorney for Linda Bean's Maine Lobster, in Rockland, where the covert film was allegedly shot, told the Press Herald that he would not comment on the video because there is nothing in it that verifies where it was made.

PETA -- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals -- told CBS News that the seafood processor should be using readily available technology that stuns the creatures or subjects them to hydrostatic pressure before they are dismembered and processed. Both methods would kill the creatures instantly, CBS said.

Members of the seafood processing industry are dismissing PETA's charges, saying they are made from a viewpoint with no knowledge of the industry.

Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen's Association, told the Press Herald that the group rejected the claims from the "extremist group." McCarron said PETA was "casting its judgment on an industry it knows nothing about."

Dan Paden, an evidence analysis manager with PETA, said the animal rights group would be asking police to conduct an investigation into Linda Bean's Maine Lobster under the state's animal cruelty statute.

"There's no excuse for the blatant and, we would argue illegal, cruelty going on at this slaughterhouse when there are alternate slaughter methods that rapidly stun and kill these animals," Paden told CBS.

Stephen Hayes, an attorney who represents Bean, told the Press Herald that "Our practices do not violate Maine's laws on cruelty to animals because lobsters do not come within the covered definition. Simply put, lobsters are not 'sentient creatures,' a position supported by long-standing and oft-repeated scientific and governmental studies."

Whether lobsters and crabs feel pain has been a point of debate for years, but a recent series of experiments from Queen's University Belfast animal behavior researcher Robert Elwood provides the latest evidence that the crustaceans do indeed feel pain.