85Sooner
6/11/2006, 12:11 PM
This is a report from the WHOLE FOODS company based in AUSTIN TEXAS.
So it figures. TOOOOOOOO FUNNY.
WHOLE FOODS TO CONSIDER CRUSTACEANS QUALITY OF LIFE ISSUES
By Brenda Goodman
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Saturday, June 10, 2006
ATLANTA — Lobsters, perhaps the classiest of crustaceans, are part of a Whole Foods Market test program that seeks to make the lobsters' trip from sea to sale more humane. Thus, the ones that wind up at the grocery chain's location in the well-to-do Virginia Highland neighborhood of Atlanta get separate "lobster condos," a cooler, more hospitable water temperature and a dimly lit tank away from glass-tapping children.
"We wanted to treat them less like merchandise or a curiosity to be shown to a kid," said Amy Schaefer, a spokeswoman for Whole Foods. "It's not like buying a dozen eggs."
These measures are in place until at least Thursday, when managers at the company's head office in Austin have said they will decide whether such changes go far enough to ensure that lobsters are being treated compassionately before they are sold. If the managers decide the lobsters are still not being treated well enough, Whole Foods has said it will stop selling them.
A month ago, at the height of the season, the chain pulled live soft-shell crabs from all of its stores amid concerns about their quality of life; and Kate Lowery, a spokeswoman for Whole Foods, said the store would soon review the treatment of live mollusks, such as clams and oysters.
The store has not addressed the question of whether it is humane to cook crustaceans while they are still alive.
Animal rights groups say it is about time someone paid attention to the treatment of live shellfish, which are routinely starved before purchase and kept in what activists say are unnatural conditions that are stressful and cruel.
Representatives of the shellfish industry, meanwhile, say they suspect that Whole Foods' threat to stop selling live seafood because of ethical concerns is just an excuse for poor sales.
"Isn't this ridiculous?" asked Robert Pidgeon, director of purchasing for Inland Seafood, an Atlanta-based distributor of live crabs and lobsters to restaurants across the Southeast.
Lobsters, Pidgeon said, have the nervous systems of insects and dim eyesight that prevents them from seeing much of their surroundings. They also stop eating naturally for months in the wild when water temperatures drop, he said.
"The overwhelming majority of people I've spoken to think Whole Foods is just doing this because they can't sell them," Pidgeon said. "It's not something that sells well in most grocery stores. It's too easy to lose too much money too quickly."
Pidgeon said most people prefer to order lobsters and crabs in restaurants rather than cook them at home, and as a result, live seafood that sits in grocery stores is often discarded.
That is why the Safeway chain just announced that it would stop selling live lobsters, said Brian Dowling, Safeway's vice president of public affairs.
"It's just not a big seller for us," Dowling said.
Taking live sea creatures out of stores is exactly what animal rights groups like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and the Humane Society of the United States wish grocers would do. Both groups had representatives on the panel that reviewed Whole Foods' compassion standards for live seafood.
"Among foods that are borderline sadistic, live seafood is at the top of the list," said Bruce G. Friedrich, vice president of international grass-roots campaigns at PETA, referring to stores' treatment of live food products.
PETA maintains that lobster tanks are inhumane because the lobsters are starved and often piled on top of one other even though they are solitary animals in their natural environments. The group also says that shellfish, despite primitive nervous systems, can feel pain.
Robert Steneck, a biologist who studies lobster behavior at the University of Maine's Darling Marine Center in Walpole, said he thought the discussion over the inner lives of shellfish, or lack thereof, was really more about a person's comfort level than the lobster's.
Lobsters and crabs, like most other invertebrates, Steneck said, can move away from harmful stimuli, but there is no evidence to suggest that they are capable of suffering, which requires an emotional component.
"I don't mean to be too flip here," Steneck said, "but when you're talking about the whole range of nature, it's not always pretty and it's not always the way you'd want your golden retriever cared for."
So it figures. TOOOOOOOO FUNNY.
WHOLE FOODS TO CONSIDER CRUSTACEANS QUALITY OF LIFE ISSUES
By Brenda Goodman
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Saturday, June 10, 2006
ATLANTA — Lobsters, perhaps the classiest of crustaceans, are part of a Whole Foods Market test program that seeks to make the lobsters' trip from sea to sale more humane. Thus, the ones that wind up at the grocery chain's location in the well-to-do Virginia Highland neighborhood of Atlanta get separate "lobster condos," a cooler, more hospitable water temperature and a dimly lit tank away from glass-tapping children.
"We wanted to treat them less like merchandise or a curiosity to be shown to a kid," said Amy Schaefer, a spokeswoman for Whole Foods. "It's not like buying a dozen eggs."
These measures are in place until at least Thursday, when managers at the company's head office in Austin have said they will decide whether such changes go far enough to ensure that lobsters are being treated compassionately before they are sold. If the managers decide the lobsters are still not being treated well enough, Whole Foods has said it will stop selling them.
A month ago, at the height of the season, the chain pulled live soft-shell crabs from all of its stores amid concerns about their quality of life; and Kate Lowery, a spokeswoman for Whole Foods, said the store would soon review the treatment of live mollusks, such as clams and oysters.
The store has not addressed the question of whether it is humane to cook crustaceans while they are still alive.
Animal rights groups say it is about time someone paid attention to the treatment of live shellfish, which are routinely starved before purchase and kept in what activists say are unnatural conditions that are stressful and cruel.
Representatives of the shellfish industry, meanwhile, say they suspect that Whole Foods' threat to stop selling live seafood because of ethical concerns is just an excuse for poor sales.
"Isn't this ridiculous?" asked Robert Pidgeon, director of purchasing for Inland Seafood, an Atlanta-based distributor of live crabs and lobsters to restaurants across the Southeast.
Lobsters, Pidgeon said, have the nervous systems of insects and dim eyesight that prevents them from seeing much of their surroundings. They also stop eating naturally for months in the wild when water temperatures drop, he said.
"The overwhelming majority of people I've spoken to think Whole Foods is just doing this because they can't sell them," Pidgeon said. "It's not something that sells well in most grocery stores. It's too easy to lose too much money too quickly."
Pidgeon said most people prefer to order lobsters and crabs in restaurants rather than cook them at home, and as a result, live seafood that sits in grocery stores is often discarded.
That is why the Safeway chain just announced that it would stop selling live lobsters, said Brian Dowling, Safeway's vice president of public affairs.
"It's just not a big seller for us," Dowling said.
Taking live sea creatures out of stores is exactly what animal rights groups like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and the Humane Society of the United States wish grocers would do. Both groups had representatives on the panel that reviewed Whole Foods' compassion standards for live seafood.
"Among foods that are borderline sadistic, live seafood is at the top of the list," said Bruce G. Friedrich, vice president of international grass-roots campaigns at PETA, referring to stores' treatment of live food products.
PETA maintains that lobster tanks are inhumane because the lobsters are starved and often piled on top of one other even though they are solitary animals in their natural environments. The group also says that shellfish, despite primitive nervous systems, can feel pain.
Robert Steneck, a biologist who studies lobster behavior at the University of Maine's Darling Marine Center in Walpole, said he thought the discussion over the inner lives of shellfish, or lack thereof, was really more about a person's comfort level than the lobster's.
Lobsters and crabs, like most other invertebrates, Steneck said, can move away from harmful stimuli, but there is no evidence to suggest that they are capable of suffering, which requires an emotional component.
"I don't mean to be too flip here," Steneck said, "but when you're talking about the whole range of nature, it's not always pretty and it's not always the way you'd want your golden retriever cared for."