February 17, 2007
PETA Vs. Food Network
Reader Stanley sent us this photograph of what he described as a "low key PETA protest" from the other day. Two PETA demonstrators were protesting an Iron Chef America outside of Chelsea Market, where the show films. An episode of the cooking showdown featured a lobster challenge - Morimoto vs. Eme from Season 3. But the protest may have had an unintended effect: Stanley tells us that he was inspired enough to buy a lobster bisque at Hale & Hearty.
PETA probably wouldn't be too happy with Gothamist either - we were cooing about the great deal on lobsters at Fairway just the other day. But we do find PETA's information interesting, even if our views differ.
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Gothamist, can you please explain how your view differs from the one that says it is pretty barbaric to kill living creatures by tossing them in boiling water while still alive? I'm quite interested in hearing what your views are.
they're yummy when consumed in that fashion
they're yummy when consumed in that fashion
God bless having incisors to tear flesh. PETA-freaks.
Would they like us better if we were ferrets?
huh... Wow. I'm the Art Director for the TV show "Iron Chef America," and we tape the episodes in a series of 20 every eight or nine months. I'm not sure what PETA thinks it was protesting. (1) The Food Network presence at Chelsea Market is subdued--I have friends in the city that don't know where I work, (b) the last shoot was about six months ago, and that was for series five; the series 3 lobsters are long dead, (3) where did Peta get the foam & fleece for that lobster costume? uh, was it lovingly donated by still-living organically farmed petroleum & polyester plants...? Think about it.
Lobsters are godless killing machines without a soul that pose one of the greatest threats to America.
They would kill and consume you if they had the chance.
Ditto for ferrets.
And does the man in black realize how many cotton plants had to die in order to clothe him??? Hmmmmmm?????
If we didn't eat the lobsters, they'll one day eat us.
look at the one holding the sign, they already master language. the next step is for them to build a huge boiling pot and throw us in.
Lobsters may not be as cute and cuddly as doggies, kitties, or piggies, but they are living, feeling individuals who deserve moral consideration.
It can be hard for us to relate to lobsters, but I think most of us agree with the idea that causing unnecessary harm to others is something we ought to avoid. I'm vegan because I think that a few minutes of pleasure on my taste buds is not worth the deaths and sufferings of animals.
Check out GoVeg.com if you'd like to find out more. And SuperVegan.com if you'd like to check out some NYC veg-friendly restaurants.I've always wondered why there are so many fat vegetarians and vegans.
#10, Checking out GoVeg.com only makes me glad that I am not a vegan. I choose to have a nice "surf and turf" tomorrow so why don't you morons dress up as a cow and protest outside Old Homestead across the street as well.
Please choke on some broccoli, you PETA freaks.
Dang! I wish I could remember the name of the fish market inside Chelsea Markets: that place serves the yummiest lobster roll sandwich!
Had I been walking by and seen the PETA lobster, I probably would've walked right in and ordered one.
(No sympathy to crustaceans! Remember all the wounded marines and drunk beachcombers they've devoured over the years!)
And about foam mascots: I love 'em! A mascot on the street always brightens my day! Whatever sort of flier they're handing out, I always take one--I don't think it's easy work being inside one of those suits.
Gurple, I would agree, it's barbaric to throw cold blooded animals into boiling water. If you do that lobsters they try to jump out of the pot. That's why the appropriate method for cooking lobster is to place them in the water when it is cold, and then put the pot on heat. Because they are cold blooded, their body temperature matches that of their environment and it will rise along with the water. They slowly lose consciousness and do not fight or struggle against the rising temperatures. This is the humane way to cook lobsters, and is the way that everyone I know uses. It is considerably more gentle than the methods that lobsters use to consume their food: fish, mollusks, other crustaceans, worms, and some plant life are all consumed lived and suffer through the crunching and tearing.
All that said, while I still promote the idea of raising the temperature and not just tossing lobsters into boiling water, lobsters do not have a cerebral cortex, the part of the brain responsible for the perception of pain in vertebraes. Additionally, lobsters are capable of reflex amputation, discarding a limb when it gets caught, a limb that might later grow back. Clearly, their perception of pain is not comparable to that humans, or even mammals, or even vertebraes. It is impossible for us to comprehend at this time exactly what pain is like on the psyche and emotional state (if such a thing exists) for lobsters, and the exact same thing could be said for plants and fungii.
You must consume life in order to continue living.
"God bless having incisors to tear flesh. PETA-freaks."
I'd like to see you chase down a zebra, kill it with your bare hands and tear at its flesh with those amazing incisors you must have, Nat.
Once you do that, you will prove that man is a) at the top of the food chain and b) not as much of an idiot as you make him out to be.
"I'd like to see you chase down a zebra, kill it with your bare hands and tear at its flesh with those amazing incisors you must have, Nat."
Why? I'd like to see you build a farmhouse, grow all the corn, lettuce, brocolli, carrots, potatoes, and other plant or fungus you eat for the next year, prevent them from getting infected, harvest and store it for the long harsh winter, and only then grind it with your amazing molars.
That was a terrible argument for not eating meat. Man's at the top of the food chain because they took stone, hammered it into a point with another stone and tied it to a stick for an arrow or a spear to make it easier for us to kill animals that are larger and faster than us. We discovered metallurgy, electricity, invented engines and built a tractor so that we could harvest vast amounts of grain. We used biological sciences to study plant pathology to prevent entire crops from dying out and a region starving through famine, and to invent semi-dwarf high-yield, disease-resistant wheat varieties to literally rescue billions from from starvation.
Do that with your bare hands!
who eats zebra? i mean, i'd try it if i was offered it, but i don't ever remember hearing of anyone eat zebra. you think it tastes like the chocolate/vanilla swirls at TCBY?