PETA crabby over lobsters

Group: Lobster-catching game cruel and unusual

Peter Marcus, DDN Staff Writer

Friday, June 27, 2008

PETA is boiling mad and Dennis McCann is trapped.

But the animal rights organization says McCann’s predicament is far less intense than the live lobsters trapped in his coin-operated Lobster Zone claw game. PETA says McCann — owner of JD’s Bait Shop, a sports bar in Greenwood Village — should remove the game from the premises. The group says it is cruel and unusual to keep the lobsters in the Lobster Zone tank only to be boiled alive.

“JD’s Lobster Zone machine turns torture and death into a game, pure and simple,” said PETA Vice President Tracy Reiman.

In case you’re wondering, Lobster Zone works just like any other claw game. For $2, patrons have a chance to move the remote-controlled metal claw inside the tank, place it over a live lobster, and as the machine says, “You catch ‘em, we cook ‘em.”

But McCann is stuck between a rock and a lobster trap. While most of his patrons seem to like the Lobster Zone game, a few contacted PETA to complain, saying they were “dismayed to see the Lobster Zone machine,” according to the animal rights organization.

Machine is going away

McCann tells the Denver Daily News he will remove the rented machine from his tavern to avoid upsetting some customers. But he says he isn’t sure what the big deal is.

“I don’t know what the difference is between my place and a King Soopers that has a lobster tank other than the way the lobsters are harvested out of the tank,” said McCann.

Just like a lobster tank in a supermarket, the lobsters at JD’s are extracted from the tank to be cooked. But PETA says the difference is that the lobsters in the Lobster Zone tank are poked and prodded by a metal claw first, which causes them pain.

“Grabbing lobsters with a mechanical claw and pulling them out of the water adds another source of distress and potential injury,” writes Lindsay Rajt, a PETA assistant manager, in a letter to McCann asking him to remove the machine from his tavern.

Rajt added that the tank is “highly unsanitary and disgusts many customers.”

But the Denver Daily News yesterday couldn’t find what was disgusting about the tank. The water was more transparent than your average fish tank. McCann explained that the owner of the tank — who he rents it from — comes by once a week to clean it, check the water temperature and feed the lobsters.

And as for the customers, they say they’re going to be sad to see the game go.

“Heck, we’ve been surviving on seafood and animal meat since the beginning of time,” said Roger Markey, a frequent JD’s customer who tried his luck on the machine yesterday without success.

One customer pointed out that the lobsters have a better chance of surviving in the Lobster Zone tank than they would at a regular lobster tank in a seafood restaurant.

“You go to any seafood restaurant and they’re just sitting in the case until someone comes along and grabs ‘em. With the tank here, there’s a pretty good chance they’re not getting grabbed anyway,” said J.D. Morgan (no relation to the restaurant name), who said after at least 40 tries he has only caught one lobster.

But PETA says it has “indisputable scientific evidence” that shows lobsters feel pain.

“Incarcerating lobsters in filthy tanks inside a boisterous club, making an abusive game out of their capture, and finally boiling them to death is every bit as reprehensible as tormenting cats, dogs or any other animal,” said Reiman.

McCann said he only wishes PETA had contacted him first before sending a media advisory out to local news organizations. The business owner said he had the news broken to him by Newsradio 850 KOA yesterday morning. He said had he been given the chance to act before the story went public, he would have gladly done so.

“Life’s too short to put my energy toward this,” said McCann. “On the one side, I hate that someone is doing this to me. But on the other side, I’ll take the high road to make sure my customers are happy.”

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