A state judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by an animal rights group seeking to stop the live steaming of lobsters at the Maine Lobster Festival, ruling the group had failed to prove that boiling lobsters constituted a public nuisance.

Knox County Superior Court Judge Patrick Larson didn’t address whether boiling lobsters qualifies as animal cruelty. Instead, Larson’s Jan. 26 ruling dismissed the complaint filed by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals last year on procedural grounds.

“There is no general legal right to be free from witnessing conduct one finds subjectively intolerable, distressing, or otherwise reprehensible,” Larson wrote in response to PETA’s argument that the festival’s cooking methods posed a public nuisance.

Filed in July, PETA’s lawsuit argued the festival’s annual practice of steaming 20,000 lobsters alive violated Maine’s animal cruelty laws and created an unavoidable spectacle on public land, preventing PETA members from using Harbor Park.

PETA’s argument hinges on evolving science that shows lobsters feel pain. Scientists have traditionally believed lobsters don’t have the nerve endings to sense pain. European scientists have begun to backtrack, however, saying lobsters’ threat responses prove they can feel pain.

Britain is on the verge of banning boiling lobsters alive. The practice is already illegal in Switzerland, Norway and New Zealand. These European countries say that stunning or putting lobsters on ice before boiling them is more humane.

Festival organizers have long maintained their cooking methods are traditional and legal.

PETA is still considering whether to appeal Larson’s ruling or file an amended complaint.

“(The ruling) did not comment one way or another on PETA’s argument that steaming thousands of lobsters alive in the most painful way possible is illegal cruelty,” PETA spokesman David Perle said.

Held at the end of July, the Maine Lobster Festival draws tens of thousands to Rockland. Organizers claim to seat around 30,000 people over the five-day event, but the crowds have ballooned to 120,000 on years with good weather.