I received an interesting response from Whole Foods. Here it is:


We apologize that our decision has made you feel this way. Our intention is to provide the highest quality products that meet our standards and mission statement. We realize the realities of production involved in the selling and consuming of meat and seafood. Our intention is to continue to provide these products while improving conditions for their production and sale.

We will carry fresh soft shell crabs cleaned each day. We will offer lobsters for special order and our stores that have lobster tanks (our particular store does not have one) will continue to carry live lobsters. We have found a method to carry live lobsters in tanks which meet our Animal Compassionate Standards.

We believe that discontinuing the sale of LIVE soft shell crabs to be consistent with our views on humane animal treatment. Since November 2005, Whole Foods Market has been evaluating the sale of LIVE lobsters in an attempt to make the conditions more compassionate and we decided to also evaluate the sale of LIVE soft shell crabs as well.

We don’t have a specific timeline, but Whole Foods Market is creating the next generation of standards by evaluating the supply chain process of each species we sell to ensure we are supporting humane living conditions and compassionate treatment. We will reintroduce LIVE soft shell crab only if we are able to create workable Animal Compassionate Standards and find a supplier who can meet these standards.

I have passed along your feedback to our regional and national offices. We realize this decision does not meet all of our customers needs and we are working diligently to find a solution to meet these needs and our standards.
For more information on the Animal Compassion Standards please visit our website at www.wholefoodsmarket.com
We hope we can meet your needs soon and we appreciate your feedback.