NY restaurant to liberate 140-year-old lobster in Maine

A Japanese restaurant in New York has taken pity on a 140-year-old lobster and said that it would not end its days boiled in a pot but instead swim free in the Atlantic Ocean.

On Saturday, the venerable crustacean, named Craig, will leave the acquarium at the Halu Japanese Restaurant & Grill in Brooklyn, where it has been on display, and head north.

The owners of the Dyker Heights restaurant have asked People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) to return the ancient 20-pound crustacean shipped to Maine, where it is to be released into the sea on Saturday.

Local law in Maine forbids taking lobsters above a certain size.

"Kudos to Halu for allowing Craig to live out the rest of his days in his native habitat," Ingrid Newkirk, president of the animals rights group Peta, said in a statement.

Peta has been campaigning to liberate restaurant lobsters and save them from being thrown alive in a pot of boiling water.

According to invertebrate zoologist Jaren Horsley, lobsters have a "sophisticated nervous system" and feel "a great deal of pain" when cut or cooked alive.