Lobster Catcher Arcade Game

So, I caught myself red-handed watching the fake news again, and, tell me why FOX & Friends had this piece on a lobster catcher arcade game in Denver.

You know exactly what I’m talking about, too. You know those games where you try to pick up a stuffed animal with a metal claw (which is generally impossible). What? I mean THESE:

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I mean, didn’t you have a childhood? Any-old-ways… so some cats in Denver decided to do this with lobsters. The best thing? If you grab it you get to eat it. Now… MNP by no means endorses cruelty to animals - but catching lobsters with a claw (oh, the irony) and tossing them into a boiling pot of water isn’t really much different than just tossing them into a boiling pot. So, the fact that PETA is so opposed is somewhat of a mystery. [ Ed: They also had a piece on a dog surfing competition that I felt differently about. I’m assuming only certain dogs really surf of their own volition. ]

This apparently came from Japan - like all ridiculous things. Anyhow, read on, and watch the video:

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You can play pool, foosball, shuffleboard, darts and video games at J.D.’s Bait Shop, a sports bar and grill on Arapahoe Road just east of Interstate 25.

Or play "The Lobster Zone."

It’s just like those games where you guide a claw toward a plush toy in a glass box, only instead of stuffed animals, you are going for live lobsters. It costs $2 per try, and if you snag a lobster, the kitchen will fix it right up for you.

"You have it with some fries and some slaw, and you are done," said Dennis McCann, who has run this popular southeast Denver-area watering hole for 13 years.

McCann, however, had been thinking about removing this novelty machine after one of his customers complained. Apparently, she didn’t find the irony of clawing a live lobster amusing.

Then last week came a letter from PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, asking him to stop. PETA also put out a news release:

"JD’s Lobster Zone machine turns torture and death into a game, pure and simple," says PETA vice president Tracy Reiman. "Incarcerating lobsters in filthy tanks inside a boisterous club, making an abusive game out of their capture, and finally boiling them to death is every bit as reprehensible as tormenting cats, dogs, or any other animal."

When I called PETA spokeswoman Nicole Matthews, she was unaware that J.D.’s Bait Shop was just one of The Lobster Zone’s many customers.

Kris Volk, the Colorado distributor for the game, told me it’s played in a dozen other Denver-area restaurants. And Ernie Pappas, owner of the Apopka, Fla.-based company, told me his Lobster Zone is in more than 300 locations nationwide.

It’s been around for more than a decade, said Pappas, who hired a marine biologist to develop the tanks on his machines.

[LINK]

Somebody from Concord New Hampshire or something e-mailed the show and claimed the game was created there, but, like Bob from Bob’s Discount Furniture would say: "I DOUBT IT!"

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Posted: June 30th, 2008
at 8:54am by Black Ock


Categories: too good to be true,fo' real?,boredom killer

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