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70-Year-Old Lobster Deserves Freedom

Larry's plight stirs conscience of restaurant writer

By John Johnson,  Newser Staff

Posted Oct 23, 2009 11:53 AM CDT

(Newser) – Restaurant writer Ryan Sutton has dined on his share of lobsters, but the plight of one venerable crustacean has left him without an appetite. "Larry" is a 70-year-old lobster at New York's Oceana restaurant awaiting its fate as a $275 entree. Sutton admits he's never given much thought to the age of any of the cows or pigs he's feasted on, but 70 years?

"There’s something deeply unsettling—logic and science aside—about feasting on a creature so long-lived," he writes for Bloomberg. "Surviving to such an age, having dodged lobster traps all his life, doesn’t he deserve some sort of 'get out of jail free' card?" At 11 pounds, Larry would likely be poached and steamed, says Oceana's manager. At the very least, Sutton hopes he's killed with a knife beforehand.

This isn't Larry: It's a freshly caught lobster is seen on the wharf at Cundy's Harbor, Maine.
This isn't Larry: It's a freshly caught lobster is seen on the wharf at Cundy's Harbor, Maine.   (AP Photo/Pat Wellenbach)
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Of all the lobsters I’ve dined on recently, and I’ve dined on many, Oceana’s have been my favorite. But this 11-pounder is not for me. It’s his age that moves me—we don’t often contemplate the age of the animals we eat. - Ryan Sutton, Bloomberg

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 15 comments
ghhugh
Oct 24, 2009 12:09 PM CDT
I s this the same Larry the Lobster from SNL in the 80's? He has a go card and should be allowed to live to a ripe old age. He ain't ready yet. Long live Larry!
bewilderbeast
Oct 24, 2009 11:23 AM CDT
His pension card has his DOB on it. And you can count his rings.
bewilderbeast
Oct 24, 2009 11:23 AM CDT
Rather eat Larry and don't catch a whole bunch of breeding-age lobsters. And fish. And other sea creatures. We're over-fishing our oceans everywhere.
 

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