Crayfish game cleared
BY MICHELLE LOTTER
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A game where people catch live crayfish for dinner is causing a stir at a Northcote restaurant.
In Catcha Cray, punters pay $3 to manouevre a claw inside a glass tank to try to scoop up a crayfish to be cooked for dinner.
The game, believed to be the only one of its kind in New Zealand, is making a splash at The Backyard Bar and Restaurant, next to the Poenamo Hotel.
But it has also sparked outcries from people who think it’s cruel.
Backyard patron Lynette Baker says the game is horrible and that the metal hook used often pulls off the crays’ claws and legs.
"Then they just throw the crayfish away or put the live ones back in the fridge for the next day."
The Auckland SPCA has heard concerns from five customers worried about the crayfish’s treatment but is satisfied the game is safe after it was looked into by a leading fish and crustacean expert, inspector Todd Neal says.
"It’s been done quite well, it’s been researched. It’s no different from any tank of crayfish in a restaurant."
The owner of Catcha Cray, who wishes to be known only as Patrick, says the arm used to catch crayfish consists of three half-hoops that gently scoop them up.
The arm drops the cray into a padded box and it’s then taken away to be cooked.
"Every crayfish caught is going to be cooked, the Catcha Cray ones just happen to be caught twice.
"It’s not cruel at all, we love our crays."
Up to six crays at a time sit inside the holding aquarium for up to a week, Patrick says.
The tank is also double-glazed to protect the crayfish from noise, Mr Neal says.
Patrick says he got the idea for the game from the United States and Asia and it is just taking off in New Zealand with more Catcha Crays to appear in Auckland restaurants.
The Backyard owner Steve Gillett says he has heard complaints but most of his customers love Catcha Cray.
"We intend to continue with it. It’s quite popular with our patrons."
- © Fairfax NZ News
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How can you complain how a cray is treated have you ever thought how chickens and pigs are treated? this is a crustation?
"the arm used to catch crayfish consists of three half-hoops that gently scoop them up"...
HA! Looks more like a torture device from Bladerunner.
i think the game is a wonderful idea i would play it this country has gone soft keeping i bird in a cage is cruel not this people eat crayfish regularly.
FYI SPCA didnt clear this. D---head reporting again... One persons opinion doesnt represent ALL people in an organisation. Good to see that facts are straight. Brilliant. Rely on press releases and reliable information. Grr.
Only a brainless bozo would get a kick out of this mindless cruelty. In reply to WWRK - like the crayfish, you're going to die one day too, but I'm sure you'd like to die without suffering too much before you do so. And as for boiling crayfish alive in pots, that is an offence against our animal protection laws here in New Zealand. The ways to kill crays humanely are to spike them or to freeze them or leave them in a bucket of fresh water. Anyone who boils a crayfish alive is a very poor excuse for a human being.
'we love our crays'
I'm glad they don't love me!
'got the idea for the game from the United States and Asia'
Asia? You know its not cruelty to animals if Asia's doing it. Seriously? This is sick.
'we love our crays' ...we just allow them to be man handled by a metal claw torturing them until, finally, they are plucked out and cooked. Now that's respect.
I dont see what the problem is here there going to die anyway and as for the metal hook its a metal claw designed not to hurt the thing and as for being traumatised think of how it feels being put in boiling water alive for us to eat it think about that next time you eat one!!!
This is a terrible way to treat a living creature.
I'd like to put the bar owner in a tank and try to scoop him up with a metal hook and then see if he still thinks its not cruel.
"we love our crays"
Gimmee a break. This guy does n't know the meaning of the word love.
Denture Centre, 45 Clyde
i'm going to have to try one of these games, for 3 bucks, it's better than $80 or $90 I have to pay normally with them being traumatised in the normal tanks that hold them in Wholesale Fish Suppliers/Fishermens Ships... lets see a better target before they go on their little witch hunts to make themselves feel good in public, traumatising everyone else in public with their cheap sweat shop fashion parades(just look what they wear ! and the placards made from trees/plastics/paints/markerpens that pollute society more so than crayfish shells... sigh... yawn.