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Update: Faced with the negative attention, canceled business contracts, PETA protests, and a barrage of nearly 76,000 e-mails from our members, Linda Bean began quietly slipping out the back door of the lobster shanty, as reported by The Boston Globe.
A shocking undercover investigation that first broke on CBSNews.com exposed that live animals were being torn apart.
During a 2013 investigation at Linda Bean's Maine Lobster's processing plant, then operated by L.L.Bean heir Linda Bean, workers were seen ripping live animals apart limb from limb. Some were dumped, still alive, into boiling water, while others were left in bins to die in agony.
Workers tore off live lobsters' claws and then used metal pipes to pry their heads from their bodies. Tails and claws were saved, while the remaining parts of the lobsters' bodies were thrown in the trash, still alive and able to feel pain.
Crabs also suffered at the Rockland, Maine, facility as they were slammed against sharp metal spikes to break off their top shells, and then their exposed internal organs were violently scrubbed off with spinning brushes. They were then slowly lowered into a vat of boiling water while they were still alive.
Watch the 2013 eyewitness video to see the shocking proof:
Lobsters and crabs feel pain. Because lobsters have ganglia, or masses of nervous tissue, spread throughout their bodies their deaths can be prolonged. A lobster's nervous system continues to function even after the animal is dismembered.
Lobsters are like us in many ways: They have a long childhood and an awkward adolescence, and just like us, they carry their young for nine months and can live to be more than 100 years old.
Around 2.3 million lobsters and countless crabs were killed annually when Linda Bean operated this slaughterhouse. Don't let more animals experience this fate. The best thing that you can do for crustaceans is to refuse to eat them!