Clueless PETAphiles Endanger Lobster They "Rescued"
[my comments will be bracketed [] in the article]
    Lobster Still Imperiled
    by Richard Lorant
    (c) 02-05-98 The Associated Press
    BOSTON -- Pity Bob the lobster. Spared from a boiling pot in Denver and
    set free in Boston Harbor, he might be cooked anyway.
    First, he lost a claw on the flight east. Then, his well-meaning
    rescuers left his other claw bound shut with a rubber band when they
    dropped him in the ocean.
    [ duh! ]
    One other thing: Bob was freed in waters rife with lobster traps.
    [ duh! Could they get ANY stupider??? ]
    Now the Denver restaurant owners and TV stations who teamed up to set
    him loose are fielding calls from viewers horrified to have seen the
    10-pound crustacean dropped into the water with that red band STILL
    on.
    "People call and say, 'You killed that lobster,' and I say, 'Do you
    realize what we do to our lobsters here?'" said Robert Hahn, who
    manages the Chowda House restaurant in Littleton, Colo. "At least he's
    got a fighting chance now."
    [ duh! All this fuss... over FOOD!!! ]
    Bob -- who weighs about six times as much as your average restaurant
    lobster, but at 20 years old, might not be as tasty -- had been cooped
    up in a Chowda House tank for a couple of months when he was raffled
    off for charity at a Christmas party.
    A United Airlines pilot offered to fly Bob to Boston and release him,
    and the owners of the three-restaurant chain in the Denver area flew
    along, too.
    Somewhere along the way, Bob lost one of his claws. Experts say he
    might have shucked it himself in a defense mechanism triggered by too
    much handling and stress.
    [ duh! Boy, it just keeps getting better & better, doesn't it??? ]
    Finally, on Tuesday, the rescuers took Bob -- believed to be a Maine
    native -- for a little boat ride near Logan Airport.
    Restaurant co-owner David Francavilla, who handled the release, took
    no chances with the big guy. Instead of taking off the rubber band, he
    just slipped it toward the end of the claw so Bob could work it off.
    "We didn't want to lose a finger or anything. His claw had to be close
    to a foot long," Francavilla said.
    A close-up on TV that aired Tuesday and Wednesday showed the rubber
    band firmly stuck on the lobster's claw. That's when the calls started
    coming in -- about 100 to WHDH in Boston, and more to KUSA in Denver.
    Francavilla said the restaurant received concerned calls and even a
    few threats.
    [ Nothing like threatening a human being over abusing food! ]
    "We thought it was a real noble cause: raise money for charity and
    release the lobster to live out his last few decades," he said.
    The good news for Bob is that the rubber band probably will work its
    way loose before too long, said Jason Goldstein, a lobster biologist
    for the New England Aquarium. Even if it doesn't, Bob will be able to
    use his legs to forage for food.
    What's more, Goldstein said, one-clawed lobsters, or culls, often live
    to a ripe old age.
    "Obviously, the ideal thing would have been to release a healthy
    lobster with two claws and no band," Goldstein said. "But this is
    being blown out of proportion."
    But don't write that happy ending yet. The harbor where Bob was
    released is teeming with traps, and Goldstein said there's a
    significant chance he hasn't seen his last human being.
    [ duh! ]
    Concluded the biologist: "It was a good gesture, but they didn't do
    their homework."
    [ duh! ]
 ---
Here's an idea to do the WORLD a kindness: round up all the PETAphiles &
release them back into "nature" the same way they "liberated" poor Bob!
 [ Shoshona Bieman, Sysop: Shofar BBS  @  714-838-3837 ]
 [  Such a *NICE* Messianic Jewish, conservative Gal!  ]
 [ California "Got Ilk?" Contingent _ Fido @ 1:103/505 ]
--- Aeolus v1.2.1 (#49820837)
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