Saturday, January 03, 2009

"Pub in Oxford allegedly sold condemned lobsters"

Sometimes the wording trumps the story, such as in this piece in the Boston Globe: Police see something fishy in 1/2 price meals.

I was first amused by the subtitle, "Pub in Oxford allegedly sold condemned lobsters". Isn't any lobster in a restaurant tank pretty much "condemned"? There he sits, on Lobster Death Row, waiting for his meeting with the executioner. He's not serving a life sentence there, unless you mean that he'll be there for the rest of his (presumably now short) life.

It seems a restaurant owner was charged with, among other things, "unlicensed possession of shellfish".

The whole idea that you could be prosecuted for unlicensed possession of shellfish ought to send a chill down your spine.

I get the point -- the guy lifted lobsters and sold them. That's theft. And the lobsters had been exposed to spilled fuel, so they could have been contaminated and not safe to eat. That's a public health violation. But "unlicensed possession of shellfish"?

The story is about more than contraband seafood. It is a tale of lobsters on a death-defying journey, one marred by tragedy and for some, redemption. First, thousands of lobsters onboard the overturned truck narrowly missed becoming road kill. And then, those that did not become two-for-one boiled lobster specials were rescued by state environmental police, who returned them to the sea.


I'm glad the surviving lobsters were freed rather than slain. If you're not gonna eat them, put them back where they belong.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lobsters are waaaay to dumb to suffer. They're machines.

Christina Dunigan said...

It's not a matter so much of if the lobsters suffer -- though we shouldn't risk causing them gratuitous suffering. It's what happens to us when we become callous.

Anonymous said...

One way people become callous is by misdirecting their sympathy to nonsentient animals.

Aaron Taylor said...

When I first saw the title of this post, I was trying to figure out what it had to do with abortion. Very little, it turns out! ;-)

Christina Dunigan said...

It's not supposed to have anything to do with abortion. It's even labeled "off topic".

And Egli Ha: Deuteronomy 25:4:

King James Bible
Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn.Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

25:4 This is a charge to husbandmen. It teaches us to make much of the animals that serve us. But we must learn, not only to be just, but kind to all who are employed for the good of our better part, our souls, 1Co 9:9.

We're to cultivate kindness in ourselves.

Joe said...

The mentality supporting violence against unborn children and the mentality supporting violence against animals have much in common.

They both are a product of a lack of regard for other living beings. As raw fruit and vegetable eating primates, there is no real case to make that lobsters are a natural part of our diet. No primates consume lobsters or other sea animals of which I am aware.

Granted lobsters are not mammals, so the case for opposing violence against them is not as strong as it is for mammals. However, gratuitous and unnecessary violence should always be avoided, even against the simplest life forms.

Lack of regard for all life, especially human life, is the root cause of the abortion evil which is the subject of this website.

Anonymous said...

You wrote: "Lack of regard for all life, especially human life, is the root cause of the abortion evil which is the subject of this website."

Allowing people to keep all their potentially transplantable organs shows lack of regard for the patients who die for want of them. Does allowing people to keep their transplantable organs therefore cause "the abortion mentality"? If not, why not?

Christina Dunigan said...

Allowing people to keep all their potentially transplantable organs shows lack of regard for the patients who die for want of them.

So, we're supposed to kill Peter to save Paul?

Anonymous said...

No, we're supposed to take a kidney from Peter to save Paul, whether Peter wants to donate or not.

A normal person has SIX times more kidney tissue than (s)he needs. You could donate a kidney and half of the other kidney and never know the difference (after you healed from the surgery).

Christina Dunigan said...

Egli, if I find out you're really SoMG, I'm banning you permanently. Only a total jackass would compare a natural, normal, healthy and self-limiting event like pregnancy to forced organ donations.

Anonymous said...

Who's comparing them??? Not me. I'm just pointing out that both abortion and withholding transplantable organs show disregard for innocent human life. That's a SIMILARITY, not a comparison.

Anonymous said...

Not even a similarity; rather, a commonality.

Anonymous said...

A classic case of another "shellfish" business ownwer.Sometimes lobsters are people too. My name is Herb Palmer Jr, author of " The lobster and the chicken" a fable for adults in search of enlightenment. Im the lobster and my ex girl-friend is the chicken. Its the journey we all travel through life. They meet 12 characters and 12 taxis follow them with all there baggage. When they learn there lessons they leave the taxis and there baggage behind and become fully human. The bottom line is its better to write about "Lobsters" then steal them.