Lobsters eat other sea animals, so why shouldn’t we eat lobsters? What next, plants? Why don’t you spend your time helping people? But lobsters don’t feel pain, do they? I want to liberate a lobster. How can I get one? Liberating a lobster can help to ease the sense of immediacy when you see lobsters suffering in a tank, but if you buy one, you are simply supporting the industry, and the store will just replace the one you bought with another animal. If you want to help liberate a lobster, speak with the store manager. Explain that lobsters suffer in confinement and attempt to convince the store to stop selling live animals altogether. Click here to for a sample letter that you can send as a follow-up. I was given a lobster. How can I set him or her free? Lobsters are very delicate, so always handle them with care to ensure that you don’t accidentally break one of their legs or claws. • Do not place lobsters in fresh water—it will kill them. • Hold them gently. You must support lobsters’ bodies as well as their claws so that their joints won’t be stressed. • Carefully cut the rubber bands off their claws—never pull or yank the bands off, as that could damage their claws (or even rip them off!). • Don’t release lobsters into just any part of the ocean. Make sure that there are other lobsters in the area. You’ll also want to release them away from lobster pots. • Don’t just toss them in! Gently release them as far in as you can wade. Are lobsters fed while in tanks? Because lobsters are sensitive to water quality, they easily die if too much waste is created in their environment. Merchants normally do not feed lobsters in order to prevent the lobsters’ excrement from contaminating the tank water with ammonia. Often lobsters starve or try to eat one another. I went to a restaurant where live lobsters were being presented on a plate, out of water. What can I do? Ask to speak with a manager immediately to let him or her know that this practice is cruel and unnecessary. In order to breathe, lobsters must be kept moist. As their gills dry, they slowly suffocate. Lobsters have sophisticated nervous systems and are surely suffering as a result of this unnecessary practice, not to mention the practice of cutting into living lobsters and eating them alive.