SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. (1010 WINS) — A rare red orange lobster that ended up at a Long Island grocery store last month was spared when the local Humane Society learned of its plight, rehabilitated it and returned it to the sea, the animal advocacy group said.
Just before July 4, "Clementine" arrived at the Southampton Stop & Shop in the Hamptons with a shipment of traditional brown lobsters, but was quickly identified as special. According to Humane Long Island, only an estimated one-in-30 million lobsters are orange.
Store management fed Clementine shrimp to keep it alive, and first offered it up to the Long Island Aquarium in Riverhead in an effort to save its life, but it was rebuffed.
Humane Long Island became aware of the exceptional crustacean through the Southampton Animal Shelter, and executive director and anthrozoologist John Di Leonardo said that everyone involved wanted to save Clementine from its butter-filled fate.
“They wanted to make sure that this guy did not end up in someone’s pot,” Di Leonardo told 1010 WINS. “So we reached out to Stop & Shop, and they immediately agreed to donate him to us so we could rehabilitate him and release him to the wild, where he belongs in the first place.”
The organization consulted a veterinarian, prepared a cold saltwater tank for rehabilitation and helped reacclimatize Clementine for the sea.
“Within hours, Clementine was swimming, foraging, and exploring the Long Island Sound, playfully following us around before disappearing into the ocean depths where [he’ll] travel as far as 100 miles or more each year,” Humane Long Island said.
With orange lobsters being so uncommon, and tens of billions of lobsters being killed each year, Di Leonardo said that rescuing Clementine is more than an anomaly.
“For this guy to come out as orange and then, you know, be released to the wild. He's an extreme rarity,” he said.
But for Di Leonardo, this type of happy ending does not happen nearly enough. According to him, these creatures belong in the sea, not in a dinner dish.
“Like all aquatic animals, lobsters will pain and suffer when taken from their ocean homes to be eaten or confined to cramped aquariums,” Di Leonardo said. “Humane Long Island urges everyone to celebrate Clementine's successful journey back to the wild by respecting all lobsters and not eating them, because no compassionate person should boil an animal alive.”
Di Leonardo said that every person who goes vegan saves the lives of nearly 200 animals—including aquatic ones—every year.