NEW ORLEANS — People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) took to Canal Street to protest the use of cicadas as a dining option in the Audubon Insectarium in New Orleans on Thursday, May 2.
Last month, the insectarium made national headlines with the debut of the bug as a delicacy on its daily café menu.
However, the American-based animal rights nonprofit has taken issue with the insectarium and its use of the insects as a meal. PETA created a pop-up "humanitarium" exhibit which features people dressed as giant cicadas feasting on a frighteningly realistic spread of "organic, free-range human flesh" with signs sharply asking, "What if the tables were turned?"
"Eating insects at an insectarium is like chowing down on a poodle burger at a dog show," PETA's Amanda Brody told WWL Louisiana chief photojournalist Christopher Russell outside the Audubon Insectarium at 1 Canal Street on Thursday.
"Cicadas are remarkable individuals who can keep track of time by tasting small changes in fluid and measuring the soil's temperature," explained the organization's senior campaigner further about the family of sound-producing insects. "They spend 13 to 17 years underground and emerge for their one chance at a life in the outside world."
Other PETA officials agree, claiming cicadas and other creatures feel pain and should not be killed for food.
“By killing and cooking insects while purporting to educate people about them, the Audubon Insectarium is being as hypocritical as the Audubon Zoo would be if it served burgers made of lions and tigers,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman.
“Cicadas feel pain – just as humans do – and PETA encourages everyone to show them and all other sentient beings compassion by keeping animals off their plates, whether they have four legs, six legs, or none at all.”
Read more below the photo gallery
PETA protests cicadas on New Orleans insectarium's café menu
According to Brody, what PETA is asking for cicadas is no more than mankind would ask if those very same tables were actually turned.
"No one needs to eat animals or any other insects," Brody said. "PETA is asking people to let cicadas live their lives just as we humans would want a more powerful species to let us live our lives in peace."
Those interested in learning more about PETA can visit peta.org. Brody said free vegan starter kits are also available.
The Audubon Insectarium serves its edible insect dishes daily from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m..
WWL Louisiana has reached out to the Audubon Nature Institute for comment.
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