PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, has proposed a Lobster Empathy Center, according to its website and the BDN. The new center, the first of its kind in the world, would be housed in the vacant Skowhegan jail building.

In a press release (read the whole thing here), PETA says that "visitors to the center could voluntarily have their fingers rubber-banded together, and then they could walk into a dirty tank where they would be pressed up against other visitors to simulate conditions for lobsters in supermarket tanks. The exhibit would even include a giant lobster-trap mockup and a restaurant serving delicious plant-based faux lobster."

PETA's claim is that lobsters have sophisticated nervous systems and experience pain and suffering, thus making the boiling or steaming a not so pleasant experience, however tasty the result.

President of PETA, Ingrid E. Newkirk, says, "Mainers have been dragging lobsters from their ocean homes for generations - it's time for them to learn that these fascinating animals deserve more than being treated as mere commodities…Incarcerating lobsters in filthy tanks and sentencing them to death by boiling is every bit as unacceptable as abusing cats, dogs, or other animals."

Judge for yourself what it might be like to be stuck inside a lobster trap here.

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