We call on all grocery stores in Winnipeg to stop selling live lobsters.
Fish and marine life are the most overlooked of all the animal species who are enslaved and murdered by humans, yet they suffer immensely. Approximately 1-3 trillion fish, crustaceans and cephalopods are murdered each year, an unfathomable amount.
 
It is unconscionable that we are selling live lobsters considering the global outbreak of the COVID-19 Coronavirus, which has originated in wet markets and the eating of animals. It is critical that we phase out animal violence foods and replace them with healthier and ethically responsible plant-based protein sources instead.

Canada Post ships lobsters across Canada, packed on top of each other. They are sent in Styrofoam coolers with no water, just an ice pack. Upon arrival at the store, they are held in a barren tank with many other lobsters, while they are solitary animals and prefer to live alone. It has been confirmed to us that these lobsters are not fed during their time at the store; it is not worth the effort to feed them or clean the tanks from the waste that would result from feeding. They are territorial creatures; they are extremely stressed to have their claws bound and then be piled in on top of each other. Many lobsters suffer and die every day in these tanks.

For your countless customers who value the life of every species on earth, it is extremely painful for us to witness these poor creatures being bound, starved and tortured in your watery prisons. The presence of live crustacean tanks in your stores are having severe negative emotional and even physical impact on your customers every day.
 
Lobsters live on average 50 or so years in the wild and can live up to 100 years.
Their lifespan is relative to a human lifespan.
Studies show that lobsters have more complex emotional awareness and behaviours than first thought. It is proven that lobsters feel pain as they have a nervous system and avoid a negative stimulus after a painful experience with it. They also respond less to pain when medicated.
 
During this time of quarantine, when we are all feeling stressed, anxious, and caged in, we would like to point out that this is the reality of so many farmed animals every single day, for their entire lives. We have tv, internet, social media, access to food and forms of physical activity, but these animals know none of these reprieves. The fact that they are solitary creatures and forced into tanks with dozens of other lobsters is stressful and unethical.
 
 
Lobsters are not objects to be bought or sold. They are amazing creatures who need to be in the ocean, their natural habitat. It is time for these tanks to be emptied for good. Winnipeg grocers, please step up and be leaders in ending this horrific practice. Your customers are calling on you to drain these tanks once and for all.
 
 
 https://www.animalsaustralia.org/features/6-incredible-lobster-facts.php