PETA put up a billboard urging Baltimore to stop eating crab. It didn’t go over well

PETA is going after Baltimore’s beloved crab.

The animal rights group selected the Maryland city’s crustacean as the focus of its latest campaign. A billboard in Baltimore pictures a crab with the words, “I’m me, not meat. See the individual. Go vegan.”

Danielle Ohl, a reporter for the Capital Gazette, tweeted a picture of the billboard Thursday, and it set off some strong reactions. (The Capital Gazette is part of the Baltimore Sun Media Group.)

Many locals shared their reactions, on Twitter and otherwise.

“I thought it was fake, honestly,” said Tony Minadakis, owner of the Jimmy’s Famous Seafood in Baltimore. “I was shocked. It was pretty tone-deaf.”

Kelly Diaz said she found the billboard funny, though she agreed it made a bold statement given its location.

“This is Baltimore, and we are a city that has had great pride in our crabbing industry,” she said.

But Diaz, a 35-year-old lawyer, said she doesn’t have an issue with vegetarianism or veganism and has even tried — and enjoyed — a zucchini-based “crab cake.”

Vegan crab cakes happen to be having a moment in Baltimore now, with the Land of Kush restaurant’s version being named one of the top 10 vegan seafood dishes nationwide, by none other than PETA. The city is also in the middle of Vegan Restaurant Week.

But the billboard was erected to engage local diners ahead of the Baltimore Seafood Festival in September, a PETA spokeswoman said.

“This is exactly the point. We want people to look up and hopefully change what’s on their plate that day,” said Amber Canavan. “Our ad, it reminds people that crabs are not inanimate objects. They’re living, feeling individuals.”

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, as PETA is formally known, has placed similar billboards in other East Coast cities. The Portland International Jetport in Maine is the site of a pro-vegan advertisement featuring a lobster.

Baltimore’s crab-themed billboard is the only one of its kind in Maryland, Canavan said.

The Norfolk, Va.-based organization wants to call attention to the way crabs are caught and cooked.

“PETA’s billboard aims to give Charm City residents some food for thought about sparing sensitive marine animals the agony of being boiled alive or crushed to death in fishing nets simply by going vegan,” Tracy Reiman, PETA executive vice president, said in a statement.

Lumpkin writes for the Baltimore Sun.