PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 22, 2022
An animal rights group wants Portland officials to replace a well-known statue of a lobsterman in downtown Portland with another statue depicting a lobster crushing a trap in its claws. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which has campaigned regularly against the Maine lobster fishery, made the offer Thursday in a letter to Mayor Kate Snyder, saying the statue swap would be “claws for celebration.” Ingrid Newkirk, PETA’s president, said the organization would donate the statue. She included a rendering that shows what appears to be a large lobster crushing a lobster trap in one of its claws. Snyder said she hadn’t seen the letter and declined comment on PETA’s offer.