Restaurant Game Played With Lobsters Gets Deep-Sixed

Two bucks used to buy a lot of laughs at Sumo Sushi in Irvine. With the theme from the movie “Jaws” blasting, customers could take turns trying to snag live lobsters from a water tank, using a plastic claw.

Winners--about one in two players--could eat the $2 lobsters they caught.

“It was so amusing,” said bar manager Kenny Hoang. “We lost more than we earned with it, but it created a really jolly atmosphere.”

Not everyone thought it was so funny. The owners received a letter Thursday from Irvine police threatening citations for animal cruelty if they did not stop the game, known as the Lobster Zone. Animal cruelty carries a fine and a six-month jail sentence.

The letter was prompted by Officer Dennis Ruvolo of the Police Department’s Animal Services Division. He saw customers line up to chase the slow-moving lobsters with the plastic claw. Once caught, the creatures were dropped down a three-foot chute to meet their fate--in this case, dinner.

“It just appeared as if they were subjecting them to unnecessary, inhumane treatment,” Ruvolo said. The game, he added, “was causing the lobsters injury. . . . It was almost making a sport of it.”

Animal rights activists are outraged. The game, which is being advertised on the World Wide Web, is apparently popping up at restaurants and bars around the country. The machines are similar to the carnival game, except with lobsters instead of stuffed toys.

Sumo Sushi’s owner said lobsters must endure far worse.

“The lobsters come from the state of Maine,” said owner Khang Do, who purchased the coin-operated machine about a year ago for $8,500. “Hundreds of them are packed in ice with no water, and they are shipped in an airplane. It probably takes 24 hours for the whole transit. Is that not cruel?”

Besides, lobsters are creatures with a crude nervous system and “do not process pain,” said J.R. Fishman, president of the Fort Lauderdale-based Advance Games and Engineering.

Animal rights activists disagree.

“The machines are just so unbelievably absurd and cruel,” said Bruce Friedman, spokesman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. “Do you treat lobsters any differently from dogs or cats?”

But Rick Centrangolo, of Mission Viejo, said the game at least gives lobsters slightly better odds.

Anyway, he added, “What is the difference when the outcome is the same? They are going to be thrown into boiling water. Maybe the city should outlaw eating lobster.”