Left elastics on his claws for 20 years then let him go. Really speaks volumes about how people think, or don't think rather

Saw a video of a man who bought a live lobster from a grocery store as a pet it took that lobster almost a month to regain use of both its claws I can only imagine how long it would take lobsters that age to do that if ever a aquarium would have been a more humane choice

It’s like taking your 15 year old dog that you’ve fed and taken care of his whole life and setting him free in the woods at 15 years old. Sounds like a death sentence not a pardon.

Sad to say, both lobster's probably didn't live that long after being released into the wild. Decades of captivity has made them accustomed to tank life, and if their claws were banded the whole time during captivity, they had absolutely no chance in the wild after the neurological damage it would've caused them.

How does everyone in the comment section have enough sense to realize releasing a lobster that was sitting in a tank with its claws clamped for 20+ years is a bad idea but the guys planning it couldn't realize it?

Anyone who's coming here after watching Leon the Lobster, it's safe to say that Louie probably straight up died in like 2 days after being released. All these people thinking they're doing a good deed proudly waving around Louie as an advertisement to their seafood restaurant not realizing that they (1) removed Louie's instinct for hunting because after 20 years of spoon feeding in a tiny ass cage how the hell does anyone expect it to be able to hunt for food on its own, and (2) destroyed Louie's claws from those rubber bands that destroyed all its nerve damage. Such a shame man.

R.I.P Larry, he died 5 minutes after he was thrown in the water. He couldn't use his claws because his muscles were to weak after being banned shut for 20 years.

Noooooo! Who thinks Larry remembers how to hunt after 20 + years? Who thinks his claw muscles still work after being banded shut that long? Let's take a vote!

I can't believe the whole town didn't think this would be a bad idea... 20 years in a tank with barely any room to move, that poor thing was probably pretty quick lunch for whatever was nearby when they released it... We don't even know their full lifespan, with such an old specimen already it could possibly have been appreciated by generations to come by simply moving it to an aquarium! He turned down $1k to instead release it for free to a likelier more painful death... People disgust me.

Next headline: “local fisherman finds incredible 22lb lobster and says it was the feast of a lifetime!”

Poor Louie has probably become institutionalised! He probably doesn’t know or remember how to fend for himself in the wild. He’s not had to hide or search for food for so many years now. A really nice massive aquarium would probably have been better. But regardless, I hope he’s still doing well out there somewhere!

After having his claws banded shut for that long, they probably doomed him to death since he wouldn’t have been able to use his claws after all that time. An aquarium would have been a better choice. Their pardon, though done for commendable reasons, was a bit misguided. I’m surprised they didn’t consult with an expert to make sure he would be able to survive. I hope he does.

They should have given him an aquarium upgrade instead

There's a giant lobster that lives in a isolated cove near my house on Cape Breton Island. He has a nice den under a old pilling. I first came across him wile diving 20 years ago. He is way too large to fit in a trap. I would estimate he is about a yard long about 30-40 pounds. Live long and prosper buddy.

You can't just release a lobster like that straight from that type of captivity. It's a death sentence. After so long his muscles have atrophied so much, it will take years of rehabilitation. Even then, he may never recover enough to survive on his own.

Poor Louie. He couldn't have been able to survive. Hungry predators. No food. Confusion. Claws banded for 20 years. If only they realized that. Plus, holding him like that was probably so stressful for Louie. I doubt he made it much longer than a week. Oh well :(

To assure his safety they should've found a public aquarium somewhere that he would be able to live a happy life in instead of dodging the fishing boats. At least in most public aquariums the tanks are big enough to allow for the lobster to thrive and it won't be in danger of people catching them to eat them.

...a life that lengthy deserved far more respect.

Let's preserve Larry's life by sending him out to sea without current hunting or self-defense skills. RIP Larry

Tortured it for decades then gave it a slow death. GG.

What great guys! Holding him by the claws instead of by the body so his shoulder sockets are stressed to the limit. Oh, and showing him off for an hour or two in the open air is also great for his health. It’s true that lobsters can live out of water for a while, but they struggle to get enough oxygen. And finally, putting him back in the ocean after 20 years in captivity is a death sentence. Nice work, fellows!

Died in a week when the food never dropped on its face.

As noble as it may sound to release a tank lobster to the wild again, if they have been banded on the claws in all that time it will take then a great deal of time to get their claws working again and during that time they will be particularly vulnerable to predation without that defence. If you are releasing a claw banded lobster you should take the bands off at least a month maybe even more to allow the claw to start working again before releasing them to the depths.

Oh no! Lobsters that have had their claws rubber banded take a long time to be able to use their claws again. They’re essentially helpless for days if not weeks depending on if they can catch food. He needed to be rehab in a separate tank without the rubber bands on for a while prior to release or it’s really just a death sentence

5 years later Loui came back as a level 10 Kiju and wrecked the city.

there's just one problem-- the older a lobster is, the more likely for it to die from molting complications. 132 is almost impossible. and animals generally taste worse and worse as they get older.

I just watched a vid of a grocery store lobster brought home and put in a 55 gallon seawater tank. It was days before it could open and close it's crushing claws because they had been banded. Wonder how this one did.

bands on his claws and captivity for ages, not using its muscles... it wouldve struggled to survive back in the ocean. the muscles and dexterity would have atrophied and he wouldve struggled to simply move to catch food

This seems to me to have been an incredibly cynical move on the part of the restaurant owners. Freeing one old lobster who is almost certainly going to die after being fed for the last 20 years and then dumped out to find his own food, and then profiting on it by making a huge deal about how noble his is by freeing one ancient lobster making sure a pack of reporters and town officials are around to give his restaurant maximum exposure and business....said business being the cooking and feeding to humans dozens of Larry's smaller and tastier cousins every single goddamn night. Honestly, screw this guy. What a cynical ass.

Probably a scuba diver in the water just waiting lol...

After having their claws banded for so long their main defensive weapons are completely useless. They need to be properly rehabilitated before release otherwise theyll probably die.

that lobster would die very fast in the wild, its crusher claw is desintegrated because of lack of use, when the losster cant use these for a very long time, their muscles in that area die, so releasing this animal is similar to releasing a scorpion with no tail or claws into the wild.

Animals that spend a lot of their time in captivity die after being released. That lobster didn't have to hunt for food or fight for it's life for twenty years and now it has to. Probably died within a week.

1 it's ither dead 2 it's been 're captured 3 it's been eaten

There was one like that years ago, that was from a restaurant, a patron bought it, then decided eating this big lobster wasn't on the menu, so he took it to the Boston Aquarium, and he lived out his life, safe from cooking, with friends in the huge display tank.

so after having his claws in rubber bands for 20 years they expect him to be able to use them to defend him self if needed? maybe it would have been better to give him to an Aquarium

Why not an aquarium. Somebody will probably catch him. Sad

His chances are very slim. I think you could have found some aquarium to put him in

When the lobster is older then you respect it 💯

This is actually a really sad story! The lobsters claws have been bandaged for 20 plus years and has lived in captivity for 20 plus years and all of a sudden they just expect it to survive in the wild? Furthermore, If I had been the guy that wanted the lobster for a thousand bucks I could probably have just fished him back out after they released him....

The owner didn’t do it for the lobster, he did for brand awareness. Think about it he made it on the news, he’s building his companies public relations.

20 years in a tiny tiny tank what a sad life... Why not give him a nice tank in a zoo at least 🤔 so he won't get caught

Cool story, but i think, like many of these comments, that they needed to transition him slower. His crusher claws would be inoperable for a very long time because they've been banded for so long, along with his smaller claws after living in a tank for so long. I really hope they didn't just send him to his death.

What great people to have "pardoned" that lobster. What did those lobster ever do to deserve such treatment in the first place. Humans are sick.

Is this how Spongebob show got their character, Larry the Lobster?

I'm surprised that (1) at least one of these 100 year+ lobsters wasn't given to an aquarium (just to see how long they _can_ live), and (2) no scientists are studying lobsters (much less other crustaceans) to see why they live for so long and how age affects their bodies. PS: I'm surprised they didn't pin a tracking device on him to see how he does.

His claws wont work after being binded for so long. He wont survive

Sadly, after being incarcerated for 20+ years, Louie couldn’t adjust to life “outside” so he robbed a liquor store and was thrown back in the only real home he’s ever known.

They should have put him in his own tank with more room to move around. Not too smart to release him.

20 years in a tank that boi does not know how to catch its own food anymore😵😵😵😵

Theres something that seems genuinely insane to me at the thought of a creature that has lived longer than me, my parents and my grandparents being ended in seconds just for a meal

This lobster has both been crippled by having its claws banded for some unknown length of time and a long time in captivity dulling its ability to both feed itself and avoid predation. Putting it back out to sea without any effort to rehabilitate it is so cruel they may as well have thrown that creature into a dumpster. At least if they had cooked it, it would have died for some purpose, but tossing it back out to sea to die just seems mindlessly cruel, like the PETA members that break into mink farms and put the minks out into the wild to starve to death and freeze to death. Sad.

That was dumb someone or something prolly ate Louie as soon as he was released

Cute story now run a story on how the lobster died quickly after being released.

anyone else here after that video of a guy buying a store lobster and keeping it for over a month?

After watching the video of that guy keeping the restaurant lobster as a pet I’ve been getting so many lobster videos recommended to me

Bet someone jumped into the water after Larry’s release and ate him for dinner that night.

3 days later a young man named Harry knobs caught a 22 pound lobster in the same area where Larry was released and instead of keeping it as a pet like some people do he boiled it up and served it to his friends what a truly inspired story if only they all could have happy endings like this

Lobsters can live an astonishingly long time, and grow to immense proportions. I saw a picture of a lobster claw dredged from the area of the Marianas Trench in the Pacific about 50 years ago, in a display case in the oceanographic museum in Monaco; it was as tall as a man! Gigantism in the deep trenches is common.

People never cease to amaze me. It’s like the release of the captive orcas that have lived their lives in tanks. They actually have ocean “pens” and feed them and really care for them carefully because they can’t just join a pod (they’re families in pods and speak different “languages”) and have no clue how to care for themselves, but to give themselves room and feel the rhythms of the ocean. Also, as another note, my ex-husband grew up in a small remote fishing village only accessible by boat or chartered small plane. The bigger the lobster does not equal taste. In fact, once you get over a few pounds, the meat isn’t as tender or tasty, so eating him? Probably wouldn’t taste as nicely. As someone else said, Leon the grocery store lobster had his elastics removed and took a couple of months to be able to use his claws. Can you imagine years with the elastics on his claws? It’s like people who are para and quadriplegic; there is significant atrophy of the muscles and soft tissues of the joints. The fact that there is a whole crowd of people and not one of them is either aware or concerned about this shows all I need to know about the ignorance of the ecology, animal itself and ethics of a situation such as this one 🙄 People - amiright?

My main concern isn't with them not knowing how to scavenge. Like said before a Lobster relies on instincts alone, it isn't all from memory. But my concern is that they have those claws rubber-banded for 20 and 30 years respectively on both old Lobsters. Wouldn't muscle atrophy be a concern with not being able to use them for decades?

Louie has probably been farting in that lobster tank for decades, stewing up the same water the other shellfish drink and eat in...essentially flavoring the food at that fine establishment with his secret sauce....Mamma Mia!

They needed to make sure this lobster had full use of its claws before releasing it. Otherwise it will likely starve or die in a fight. Eating food that is already dead and dropped in a tank is one thing. Trying to catch live food that doesn't want to be caught is another. I'm totally ok with eating the lobsters that are caught. I do have a problem making someone a hero who keeps it in a tank for 20 plus years then releases it to die as a publicity stunt.

If his large claws were in rubberbands they wont work

Funny to think Lobsters were served in prisons, as they were thought of the cockroaches of the sea 😂

Wow, I never knew lobsters can live so long! I feel bad for Louie since you wonder can he survive after being in a tank for so long?

*wonders if they at least checked if the lobster could use it's claws after decades in bands. :/ Before they tossed it back in the water to fend for itself at 100+ yrs.

He was in captivity for so long that he might have died when he was released. They should have gave him his own large tank with his claws freed.

So, This is Larry backstory before he became safeguard and met spongebob.

Louie after the first night being free... Louie: Take me back home please it's scary out here... And I miss the drama free food...

So what is stopping someone from having a giant free meal now? Probably didn't last longer than a few days out in the water before someone brought him up and had a meal. He should have been placed in a large aquarium tank without those rubber bands.... If they cared for it as much as they claimed, then those bands would have been removed a long time ago.

Oof. It's a nice thought but after 20 years captivity and having his claws banded for that long, there's no way he's not going to die super fast :c

If they just threw him back in then he probably didn't do very well, most salt water fish and crustaceans need to be acclimated gradually for at least a few days because of the change in salinity and various bacteria and such that is in the water. They won't tell you how many lobsters die within a few weeks of capture if they are not eaten and the older they get the harder it usually is to acclimate. He was lucky the first time, now having to worry about finding his own food and predators? His chances are pretty slim...

Could you imagine the pain that lobster was in after he took those bands off after all those years

They have no way of actually knowing how old this lobster is. When it molts anything that could have given an approximate of age is left with the old shell. They can only guess at a lobsters age by it's weight. But that is subjective because it depends on many factors as it grows. The amount of food it gets, the health of the animal, the health of the environment etc.

He did his time like he committed a murder.

These idiots just sent this lobster to his death... Shouldve just provided him with a large beautiful aquarium. Or if you must send him into the wild, at least tag him with a tracker so you know he is still alive.

That things was alive at the end of the mf civil war goddamn.

His claws likely atrophied and he probably died within the first day of release. They should've freed his claws for a week or so before releasing him so he could rehabilitate.

Loved how Leon the lobster taught us all commenters about the aftermath of longevity of captivity. People releasing a lobster back into it's habitat, without even thinking even it's long age would deteriorate it.

Don't think he would survive in the wild. 😥

terrible to release the lobster, most likely a meal by some other fisherman or another animal

Poor guy. Claws were probably completely seized after 20 years with rubber bands on them.

Those people are a prime example of why alien’s won’t talk to us

It won't be able to adapt and will likely just die. Good job.

He probably died right after cuz of shock of changes in environment....poor Louis what a fucked up live to have ..

Why would you leave an alive animal(crustacean) in a cramped tank for 20 years?

I can see the headlines already, "Massive 80ft Erradiated Kaiju Lobster Emerges From Depths of Ocean With a Lust For Blood!"

Bad move, Louie will probably drop dead after he isn't fed after a week or two, since he never really hunted or sought food in the wild...

I hope you took the bands off his claws!

The least they could do was check to see if his claws still worked after being banded for so long If he's dropped in the wrong spot he's gonna get his ass kicked by another lobster

the way they handled that lobster... surprised it lived through the Public Relations campaign.

Anyone else get stressed out watching them holding Louie out of water? I wonder if the two lobsters survived? It seems like it would have been a shock to go from tank water to open water.

If you care too much about Louie the lobster why when you spend the money then to put a freaking tracker on them at least?????????? WHO ELSE ARGREE'S WITH ME ON THIS????????? LOL

Wait how did nobody realize that they'd likely be killing Louis by setting him free? His claws would be atrophied. There's no way he'd be able to catch food or protect himself. Maybe they could've found an aquarium or something for him?

Locked up. Watching all his mates get boiled alive and eaten. For 20 years! Poor bastard.

What they don't say is that he was caught again 3 days later... RIP

Do you think having him in the tank for 20 years will effect his ability to survive in the wild?? Or will it be just like riding a bike??

that lobster was probably dead in 24 hours from shock to system...pollution, predators or inability to catch food with atrophied claws. They shouldve bought him a massive tank to move around in and have a better life