Restaurants in Singapore have been slammed for using grab-a-crab arcade style games so that diners can catch their meal before they eat it.
The machines were seen at two eateries in the city over the last few weeks, one at The House of Seafood restaurant and another at Sea Tripod Seafood Group's Jurong restaurant.
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The machines were subject to backlash from the public, as well as animal rights groups, who said that they caused the creatures 'unnecessary harm' and distress before they were killed.
SPCA Singapore posted on a Facebook post: "SAY NO TO LIVE CRAB CLAW MACHINE.
"A recent post by a local restaurant has been brought to our attention. In their claw machine, inanimate objects are replaced with live crabs for customers to lift and drop to 'catch' the crab(s) they want.
"The game causes unnecessary harm to the animals and it also encourages people to see animals as nothing more than objects to play with and goes against our vision of a kinder society.
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"Crabs are living creatures, not toys. SPCA advises members of the public to not partake in such activities. We have reported this to AVS to ask them to shut this down.
"To help raise awareness, please share this message with your friends and family."
After realising the public's outrage, the House of Seafood restaurant's CEO issued an apology on Facebook.
It read: "First of all, I'm sorry to all animal caregivers. We did not intend to use animals as play things. We noticed a lot of children at The Punggol Settlement and we wanted to educate them (about marine life) and allow them to return these crabs into the ocean. We want to encourage them to release the crabs back into the ocean after catching them.
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"We would like to stress that our team took one month of planning to come up with the design of the machine, so that it would not harm or hurt the crabs. We have 'gloves' put onto the claws in the machine and we thought about this during the designing stage, to make sure that the claws will not injure or be painful to the crabs. We also clean the game machine every day and let them survive in a good environment.
"After the concerns raised by the public members, our restaurant had temporary stop the claw machine, and will carefully review our system. Once again, we are deeply sorry and apologise for any inconvenience and unhappiness caused. We, at House of Seafood, hope to serve each of you better and thank you for all the feedback."
The machines have now been filled with vacuum packed crabs instead of live ones.
Topics: World News