PETA has filed a lawsuit against the Maine Lobster Festival, arguing the steaming of lobsters is “egregiously cruel."

The practice of boiling roughly 16,000 lobsters alive amounts to torment, torture and cruelty, alleges the lawsuit filed by PETA.

PETA argues in the suit that the festival is “one of the most egregious violations of Maine’s animal protection statutes occurring anywhere on public land in the state: the systematic torture of approximately 16,000 live, sentient animals at the Maine Lobster Festival held annually at Harbor Park in Rockland, Maine.”