A Sacramento area restaurant was serving live shrimp until recently. The midtown location of Nishiki Sushi stopped selling live shrimp after dozens of people called in complaints to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. They called the live shrimp, dancing shrimp.
The live shrimp was bathed in cold sake and served to customers. Customers were told to “squeeze lemon juice on their exposed flesh so they would writhe or ‘dance’ while being eaten alive,” PETA campaign coordinator Amanda Fortino told The Sacramento Bee last Thursday.
Because we received so many calls, we contacted Nishiki and told them every animal feels pain, and we have the scientific evidence to back that up. They agreed to not sell the live shrimp anymore, and we really appreciate that,” Fortino said.
PETA said a 2007 study in Northern Ireland found prawns “acted as if they had an injured paw when acid was dabbed onto an antenna” and “responded to numbing effects of painkillers.”
“We were informed that it was unacceptable as far as animal cruelty. … People would normally get excited about them. It’s kind of taken the wind out,” Tony Malpartida, a bartender and manager at Nishiki, told the Bee.
So what we are talking about is semantics, right? PETA is ok with the shrimp being served as long as they are killed in the kitchen and not at the table? I am sorry but that makes no sense. I wish Nishiki had stuck to it’s guns on this…
Yeah….Ray…. pretty sure you’re not getting the point. PETA would never say that all restaurants had to ban the use of meat, however they do stand up for needless torture of animals that feel pain. It would be as if humans decided to eat dogs… and yes, that is disgusting to us vegans, but we accept that not everybody has our compassion towards animals… and we would have to accept that restaurants serve dogs. IF the restaurant were serving the dogs up on a plate and waiters would come by and rip the flesh off the dog one piece at a time, where the dog was suffering until death…then there would be big problems. I disagree with any type of cruelty to animals, but I do understand the need for some people to eat meat. I feel like it is a concept that should be outdated but that’s not going to happen… well maybe after we run our resources into the ground?
Humans are omnivores.
I think this is a cruel treatment applied to the animals. The best option is to make report to the Animal Protection. This kind of treatment is not normal, in any restaurant.
I do agree with Tom , I am not a food expert and neither a vegetarian but I can’t think of someone who’d enjoy eating anything while it’s alive …
It’s not okay when people control our food because of how they feeeeel about it, period. If you don’t like it don’t have any. Let the rest of us freemen be free men. Leave us alone whiners. It’s food. Shrimp. We eat it dead or alive. Get over it. BTW PETA is a domestic terrorost group full of thugs who force their will uipon others. Punks.