Preakness 2024: PETA proposes robots replace live crabs in Lexington Market crab derby

Before the horses head to the races in Baltimore, the crabs do. And this year, animal rights organization PETA is getting involved.

Lexington Market’s crab derby is an annual tradition that started in 1859, the story goes, after vendors got into an argument about who had the fastest crabs in the city. The race returns Thursday evening as part of the market’s “Derby After Dark” celebration, a Preakness Stakes precursor that kicks off at 6 p.m. and will also feature a steamed crab-picking competition and an artists’ market.

This year, there will be a second opportunity to catch the derby if you miss Thursday’s event. Faidley Seafood, a market staple since 1886, will host its own version of the race Friday at noon on the seafood stall’s patio at Lexington Market.

The derby will pit several of the multi-legged crustaceans against each other as they race to the bottom of a miniature track. PETA, however, is pitching another idea: robot crabs instead of live ones.

In an open letter to Faidley Seafood owners Bill and Nancy Devine, the organization notes that crabs can feel pain and are capable of “complex learning.”

“It may be inconvenient to recognize that crabs are sentient, remarkable animals, but we now know they are, and we must look at them with fresh eyes,” the letter says. “Times change, and traditions evolve. In its current form, this event makes light of animals’ suffering, so we hope you’ll choose to become the king and queen of compassion instead of crab cakes.”

The organization offered to supply remote-controlled crabs, as well as vegan crabcakes, for the event “to enshore you won’t be in a pinch.”

This isn’t the first time PETA has picked a fight with Maryland’s seafood industry. The Norfolk-Virginia based group, known for its guerrilla marketing campaigns, also has a years-long feud with Jimmy’s Famous Seafood.

In August 2018, the animal rights group paid for a billboard ad at the corner of East Baltimore Street, near Shot Tower, with an image of a crab and a pro-vegan message: “I’m me, not meat. See the individual. Go vegan.”

Jimmy’s fired back with a billboard parodying the PETA ad, which read: “SteaMEd crabs. Here to stay. Get Famous.”

The restaurant and PETA exchanged a new round of barbs last spring when PETA took out a Lenten-themed ad near the Southeast Baltimore seafood house and Jimmy’s responded with two billboards of its own.

Despite PETA’s proposal, Thursday’s race will move forward with live crabs, not robots, according to a Lexington Market spokesperson. So will the Friday derby, said Damye Hahn, the Devines’ daughter.

In a statement, Hahn noted the significance of Maryland’s seafood industry to the state’s economy.

“The livelihoods and traditions of Marylanders, especially our watermen and all who support them, are and have always been of the utmost importance to us,” she wrote. “The real world consequences of disrupting this for a highly debatable ethical position is far too great to even consider.”