Baltimore loves its Crab. The city is rightly known for delicious recipes using the iconic ‘Maryland crab,’ or blue crab, which made PETA’s attempts to get people to stop eating seafood quite a long shot, to say the least.

The animal rights organisation posted a huge billboard in the city, urging people to see each crab as an individual with a personality and go vegan. The scientific name for the species, Callinectes sapidus, means ‘savory beautiful swimmers’ in English, which pretty much sums up just how long we have been craving the sweet meat of these abundant creatures. Did PETA really think the billboard would make any difference to people’s eating habits? Who knows. But it certainly did get people talking!

Local Restaurant Jimmy’s Seafood was at the forefront of the backlash to the billboard, going on a Twitter rampage against PETA, some of their vegan supporters and pretty much anyone that crossed their path. “Crab is the backbone of Baltimore,” Luke David Maye, a representative of the restaurant told Bored Panda. “For decades, we have been known for our steamed blue crabs, soft crabs, and crab cakes. Every single Maryland restaurant serves some sort of crab dish.”

The extraordinary exchanges quickly went viral, as people couldn’t quite believe a business would go so public with its opinions. However, with the local delicacy of crab cakes ingrained into the local culture, we don’t think that Jimmy’s is going to be losing too much business over this. In fact, their frank and at times hilarious tweets have probably earned them a few extra fans along the way. The family-owned restaurant has been a fixture in the city since 1974, and has received a positive reaction to the Twitter storm so far. “People are thrilled to see a small, family-owned business stick up to such a treacherous and deceitful organization,” Luke told us. “We have a team that handles our social media. We all work hard on it, and it’s a group effort.”

Scroll down below to check out the Twitter exchange for yourself, and let us know what you think in the comments!

Animal rights movement PETA caused a stir in crab-loving Baltimore recently with this billboard

Local restaurant Jimmy’s Seafood was at the forefront of the backlash, expressing some remarkably frank opinions