Freedom for Big Lobster

By Miss Cellania in Animals & Pets on Jan 11, 2009 at 10:14 am

A 20-pound lobster named George will be returned to the sea after a stay in a New York restaurant. From his size, the lobster is estimated to be around 140 years old. George was caught off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada and was on bought by City Crab and Seafood for $100. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) sent the restaurant a request to set George free.

Restaurant manager Keith Valenti said there was never any intent to harm the lobster, and the decision to keep it in the tank was made to offer customers a little something extra.

“We bought a big lobster, started taking pictures with kids and it worked out real well,” Mr Valenti told Reuters news agency.

But it was a “no brainer”, he added, to agree to the request to return George to the ocean.

“We never intended him to be sold, just draw attention to the restaurant, and he did.”

George was scheduled to be released in the waters off Kennebunkport, where lobster trapping is prohibited. Link -Thanks, Geekazoid!

Tags: lobster, PETA

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sw
Jan 11th, 2009 at 11:55 am
once they’re 3+ pounds, they get tough and less tasty.
Paul in Boca
Jan 11th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
Lobster trapping prohibited, Bush trapping encouraged.
CCBC
Jan 11th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Kennebunkport, my ass. Repatriate that Canadian lobster!
Ray
Jan 11th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
The real no brainer would have been boiling it up, dipping it in melted butter and eating it.
Ashley
Jan 11th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
PETA is such a bully. They would have “requested the release” of any captive animal that gets media attention. Why do they only care about that animal and not all the other lobsters that are going to die? (Note: all the other lobsters are quite tasty, so I’m not agreeing with PETA, just pointing out their hypocrisy.)
Frau
Jan 11th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Pinchy would have wanted it this way.
Peter
Jan 11th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
At least they didnt set the chef’s house on fire or throw acid at the restaraunt…
LisaL
Jan 11th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Pfft, I bet they were going to if the restraunt didn’t comply. God I hate PETA, but well.. at least that lobster gets to go back out in to the ocean again……
Athon
Jan 11th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Great. Lobster returns to the sea where it has a chance of being eaten by a turtle, catching a lobster disease, dying of malnutrition… But the restaurant is doing the wrong thing by keeping it in a tank?

People amaze me sometimes.
lir
Jan 11th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
The lobster hasn’t died in 120 years so far; I’d say he’s done pretty well for himself.

I know other places do this sort of thing all the time.

I used to go to Deer Island in New Brunswick, Canada, with my parents for vacation all the time. There is a restaurant called the 45 Parallel Restaurant and Motel, and every year they put on display the largest lobster caught in the tank, name him Herman the ***, and then release him at the end of the season.
Sharon McEachern
Jan 11th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
Hip! Hip! for George-the-lobster. Glad he wasn’t sacrificed. And congrats to PETA which just keeps hanging in there (sometimes literally) to awaken our consciousness. This fell-good story makes me think about how human beings compare to animals when it comes to rights. The Ethic Soup blog has two unique animal rights articles. One came after Nov. election when Californians voted for a ban on crowding caged chickens(too cruel)and against already-legal gay marriage. That’s a “yes” for animal rights and a “no” for human rights.

In this article, we’re reminded of a news story several years ago when a woman jogging in southern California was killed by a mountain lion. The fund for the slain cougar’s orphaned pups received more donations than the fund for the woman’s orphaned children. Read more at: http://www.ethicsoup.com/2008/11/controversial-caged-chicken-ban-passe d-by-landslide-in-california.html

Then there’s the new Switzerland animal rights law that just took effect? The Swiss can no longer flush live goldfish down the toilet. They must be properly euthanized — the fish, not the Swiss. For this story go to:

http://www.ethicsoup.com/2008/11/animal-rights-in-switzerland-even-for -goldfish.html#more
nxsus6
Jan 11th, 2009 at 10:54 pm
Hey Sharon, are you a secret PETA agent? This is like putting grampa out on the curb in the city and saying “BE FREEEE!” I dont get it. He had a totally cush life. Now, hes got to find a home, hunt and all other sorts of stuff lobsters have to do. Poor guy. He would have been better off just staying at the rersteraunt…or better yet, they should have given him to a zoo
Bret Hammond
Jan 11th, 2009 at 11:54 pm
Y’know what would be cool? Seeing how the lobster does in Zero G.
Michaleen
Jan 12th, 2009 at 2:43 am
Some general lobster thought…

I think it is much more honest to eat what you just saw living – sticking your head in the sand about life and death doesn’t help anyone but yourself.

For instance, I have more respect for someone who hunts and kills and eats their own meat, even though I wouldn’t want to do it (but would if I had to), than someone who buys a package in a supermarket (like me).

Let’s face it – there’s not a nice way to die, and the earth is an imperfect place. God put animals here for us to eat.

As for worrying about how they are killed, far worse goes on in slaughterhouses than in a seafood restaurant with a lobster tank. This is why I try to buy organic/free range meat, by companies committed to humane slaughter.

If you don’t like the idea of them being steamed or boiled, tell them you want them broiled; they dispatch them with a quick knife in the thorax.

People need to grow up a little.

And, Sharon MacEahern?

PETA is a den of childish, maladjusted, wrong-headed, misanthropic lunatics.

And worst of all, they are hypocrites of the highest order:

http://www.petakillsanimals.com/
Evilbeagle
Jan 12th, 2009 at 7:58 am
PETA really needs to work hard to remain relevant to the stupid people that actually support this terrorist organization.

I could care less about this lobster myself. Younger ones are tastier, as was already mentioned. What gets my goat about this whole thing is not that the lobster was set free, but that PETA bullied the restaurant into doing it.

I hate PETA. Not only are they terrorists, but they are hypocrites on top of everything else. Remember folks, these are the same idiots that put down adoptable animals and can’t even dispose of them properly.
Gerry
Jan 12th, 2009 at 9:12 am
PETA fought long and hard to close a small zoo down here in South Florida. They finally achieved a court order.

The animals, mostly rescued injured and unable to exist in the wild, could not be placed in other zoo facilities and thus had to be destroyed.

PETA sucks.
gtron
Jan 12th, 2009 at 9:52 am
meanwhile, back in Newfoundland – when cod and other fish were plentiful here, and the Grand Banks supplied most of Europe with fish, Lobsters (a bottom feeder) were considered only fit for the poorest folk – strange how that’s swung around to them being some sort of luxury. Now, halibut cheeks… there’s some tasty tasty treats
Gauldar
Jan 12th, 2009 at 10:02 am
Ray,

Eating it at that age would be a waste. The flesh would be too tough. It was right to free it and let it live, but PETA’s behavior is just plain stupid.
MikeePants_CT
Jan 15th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Hey everybody-I’ve recaptured the lobster and he’s living in my house in Connecticut. He only weighs 17lbs-not 20! I’ve renamed him ‘Sam’ and he just adores our 4 year old calico cat!
Ron
Feb 11th, 2009 at 1:19 am
During the 1970′s my company had a 4th of July party every year. One year the head of the Boston division brought a 35 pound lobster. It was over two feet long, they steamed it in beer in a big laundry tub. I was tough as wood and the laundry would have probably tasted better. I love steamed lobster but I never go higher than 2lbs for Atlantic or 4lbs for spiny lobsters. Steamed in 2″ of beer for 12 minutes with a chopped up lemon. Boiling lobsters in a vat of water makes them rubbery. Pacific “slipper” lobsters have a soft meat that I find disagreeable.
kski
Jul 18th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
That is not true…my son’s worked on lobster boats and sometimes we got some big ones…and when they scuba dived, i have pictures of BIG lobsters they caught…we ate them the day caught and it was sweet and tender…we expected leather…but we all had a meal and my husband and i continued to eat left over the next day…it was good.
When lobster sits in tanks they dont get fed their body shrinks and they lose the sweetness and became tough.

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