Quote:
ROYAL PALM BEACH, Fla. -- A Royal Palm Beach restaurant is dealing with a controversy over some diners literally playing with their food.
The Royal Palm Ale House lets diners use an arcade claw machine to grab their lobster dinner. If someone catches a live lobster, it's free.
But the game has upset a local animal rights group.
When John Baker was approached by a company marketing The Love Maine Lobster Claw, he said he saw it as another good addition to his sports bar.
"There can be a line waiting to play it," Baker said.
The Animal Rights Foundation of Florida said the mechanical claw could rip off lobsters' claws, legs and antenna, and it should be stopped.
"I have never seen anything come off these lobsters," Baker said. "I don't see it (as) cruel at all."
Diners pay $2 to $5 for a series of 30-second tries. If a diner grabs a lobster, the kitchen cooks it and he or she gets to eat it for free. But there's a lot of grabbing before most lobsters get caught.
ARFF said that the lobsters suffer tremendously -- confined to the tiny tank -- being pushed, prodded and grabbed by the mechanical claw. ARFF sent Baker a letter about the machine.
"Supported by scientific evidence, which confirms lobsters feel pain…ARFF has requested that the Royal Palm Ale House remove this atrocity," the letter said.
Baker contends his game is no more inhumane than anything else store-bought lobsters endure.
"If you buy them in a grocery store and take them home and cook them, you're going to put them in boiling water," Baker said.
But ARFF quoted a zoologist who said lobsters are capable of becoming physiologically or behaviorally stressed. ARFF said that being grabbed by a claw in a bar could cause just that.
Offended customers first contacted ARFF about the machine, but those at lunch on Thursday didn't seem to mind.
Jerrod Keller said he didn't think it's inhumane "at all."
"Their fate's already been sealed from the minute they've been caught," Joel Avila said.
ARFF said it is coordinating a letter-writing campaign against the lobster game. ARFF said that a Jacksonville restaurant recently removed its version of the lobster claw after such a petition.
The Royal Palm Ale House lets diners use an arcade claw machine to grab their lobster dinner. If someone catches a live lobster, it's free.
But the game has upset a local animal rights group.
When John Baker was approached by a company marketing The Love Maine Lobster Claw, he said he saw it as another good addition to his sports bar.
"There can be a line waiting to play it," Baker said.
The Animal Rights Foundation of Florida said the mechanical claw could rip off lobsters' claws, legs and antenna, and it should be stopped.
"I have never seen anything come off these lobsters," Baker said. "I don't see it (as) cruel at all."
Diners pay $2 to $5 for a series of 30-second tries. If a diner grabs a lobster, the kitchen cooks it and he or she gets to eat it for free. But there's a lot of grabbing before most lobsters get caught.
ARFF said that the lobsters suffer tremendously -- confined to the tiny tank -- being pushed, prodded and grabbed by the mechanical claw. ARFF sent Baker a letter about the machine.
"Supported by scientific evidence, which confirms lobsters feel pain…ARFF has requested that the Royal Palm Ale House remove this atrocity," the letter said.
Baker contends his game is no more inhumane than anything else store-bought lobsters endure.
"If you buy them in a grocery store and take them home and cook them, you're going to put them in boiling water," Baker said.
But ARFF quoted a zoologist who said lobsters are capable of becoming physiologically or behaviorally stressed. ARFF said that being grabbed by a claw in a bar could cause just that.
Offended customers first contacted ARFF about the machine, but those at lunch on Thursday didn't seem to mind.
Jerrod Keller said he didn't think it's inhumane "at all."
"Their fate's already been sealed from the minute they've been caught," Joel Avila said.
ARFF said it is coordinating a letter-writing campaign against the lobster game. ARFF said that a Jacksonville restaurant recently removed its version of the lobster claw after such a petition.
Looks like that other restaurant gave in to PETA's demands after all. Lame.
