FBI investigates threats against Linda Bean lobster facilities

ROCKLAND — The FBI and local police are investigating threats against Linda Bean’s lobster business.

Details of the threats are not being released.

Rockland Police Chief Bruce Boucher said Saturday that there was follow-up investigative work done this week. He referred specific questions about the investigation to the FBI.

The threats were made in September after the release of a hidden-camera video by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals showed that lobsters were being treated inhumanely during their processing at Bean’s plant in Rockland’s Industrial Park. There was a delay in the investigation during the federal sequester, the chief said.

Interviews were done with the assistance of Rockland detectives this week. There has also been a threat assessment completed at all of the Bean facilities, including Rockland, to determine if employees were safe, the chief said.

The People for Ethical Treatment of Animals asked the district attorney’s office to investigate the lobster plant, claiming the processor’s method violated the state’s animal cruelty law. District Attorney Geoffrey Rushlau said later that month that he would not pursue the matter since the law on animal cruelty does not cover lobsters.

Bean could not be reached for comment Saturday. The FBI also could not be reached for comment.

: On Sept. 17, Dan Paden, a research associate with the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, tells reporters at a Portland news conference that his organization sent an operative into a Rockland lobster processing facility with a hidden camera to document the inhumane treatment of the crustaceans.