PRESS RELEASE: Lobsters liberated from restaurant in Dublin

NATIONAL ANIMAL RIGHTS ASSOCIATION
www.naracampaigns.org
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
9 May 2015

CONTACT NARA SPOKESPERSON:
Laura Broxson, 086 8729 444

On Friday 8th May, activists from the ‘National Animal Rights Association’, ‘Direct Action For Animals’, and the ‘Alliance For Animal Rights’ joined forces for the open rescue of 9 lobsters, from ‘Ka Shing’ restaurant on Wicklow Street in Dublin.

The lobsters, who were going to be boiled alive and eaten, were taken out to Clontarf by the activists afterwards, and set free into the sea.

You can watch the video of their rescue and release here:
https://youtu.be/FnDV7IsRM34

Speaking on behalf of the National Animal Rights Association, Laura Broxson tells us more: “Would you boil a cat or dog alive? No. So why do people think it’s ok 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?”

“We had approached ‘Ka Shing’ restaurant about this issue weeks ago, and handed in leaflets, but to no avail.”

“Right against the front window of the restaurant, lobsters are kept in an over-crowded tank, with no food, and their claws are bound with rubber bands. They remain that way until someone orders them from the menu, and then they are taken out and boiled alive.”

“Lobsters do not have an automatic nervous system that puts them into a state of shock when they’re harmed. They feel the pain until their nervous system is destroyed – which can take up to 7 minutes when being boiled alive.”

“Sometimes ‘pithing’ (a stab into the brain) is used on lobsters, prior to boiling them, in the belief that this renders them brain-dead. But that is not the case. A lobster’s brain operates from not one, but several ganglia and disabling only the frontal ganglion rarely results in unconsciousness.”

“Anyone with a conscience would agree that it is unacceptable for this practice to continue. So, yesterday, we decided to do something about it. Their rescue only took a few minutes, and within an hour they were released into the sea – where we watched each one of them swim away.”

“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. We wan’t people to focus on WHY we felt compelled to take matters into our own hands. This was life-or-death situation for these lobsters, so for us, the choice was an easy one to make.”

“During the course of an anti-fur protest the next morning, two of us were approached by Gardai, 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. We liberated them openly, because we are 100% behind our belief that it was the morally correct thing to do. What we did was an act of compassion, and we have no regrets.”