A blow for lobster rights, or just an act of shellfishness?
ANIMAL rights activists took a Chinese restaurant by surprise at the weekend when they nicked nine lobsters and l ater released them into the sea.
Ka Shing on Dublin’s Wicklow Street was targeted on Friday by an alliance of protesters who are against l obsters being boiled alive.
A staff member from the restaurant said the crustaceans were worth €150 in total and that they were pinched when two of the activists asked for a table.
The alliance of the National Animal Rights Association, Direct Action For Animals and the Alliance For Animal Rights filmed the capture of the lobsters and their release into Clontarf Bay.
Footage, uploaded to YouTube by the groups, showed the entire incident took under one minute.
Ka Shing called gardaí over the theft and the activists say charges have been pressed against them.
The film shows them entering the premises and opening the lobster tank in the front window. It also shows the lobsters having the ties removed from their claws afterwards before they are released into seawater about a foot high.
Speaking on behalf of NARA, Laura Broxson, said: ‘Would you boil a cat or dog alive? No. So why do people think it’s okay to do this to a lobster?
‘They feel pain. They feel fear. They suffer. Yet over 20million lobsters are killed in this way every year. How is it still legal? This is the first time there has been an animal rights “open rescue” in Ireland, and it is also the only public liberation of lobsters that we know about globally. We fully stand by our actions, and wish for the members of the public to reflect on this important issue.
‘During the course of an anti-fur protest the next morning, two of us were approached by gardaí, and have been told charges are being pressed against us for our actions. But whatever happens, it is a very small price to pay for those lobsters’ freedom.’
Speaking to the Irish Daily Mail, a member of staff at Ka Shing, who did not want to be named, said: ‘ Two of them came in and pretended to be customers and asked for a table, and when the staff went to check if a table was available – I think altogether there was about eight people – opened the lid of the lobster tank and started to take away the lobsters… then they ran off and we started to give chase but they were running in different directions.
‘The whole thing was caught on CCTV, we reported it to the Garda and through the CCTV footage they recognised they were a group of people from animal rights campaign groups. The fact they came in pretending to be a customer, they came in and stole the lobsters from the tank… if they had issues with animal rights, we would be happy to listen but on this occasion, this is stealing and hopefully something will be done.’
‘Would you boil a cat or dog alive?’