Officials Let Restaurant Resume Lobster Game

Customers at an Irvine sushi restaurant can take turns trying to snag live lobsters from a water tank after city officials on Friday backed away from earlier threats to cite the owner for cruelty to the crustaceans.

“They city went overboard,” said Khang Do, owner of Sumo Sushi Seafood, who said business dropped after he was forced to pull the plug last week on the popular game known as the Lobster Zone.

For $2, customers can use a plastic claw to catch a lobster as the theme from “Jaws” booms in the background. If one is caught, the restaurant prepares it for the winner.

A city animal services officer who witnessed the game threatened to cite the restaurant, prompting last week’s shutdown. Do consulted an attorney and decided to fight back.

But the standoff didn’t last long.

Irvine City Atty. Joel Kuperberg faxed Do a letter saying the restaurant would not be cited: “What the restaurant is doing doesn’t constitute using equipment to inflict pain on animals, as defined in the Irvine City Code.”

Do plugged the game back in Friday during a news conference. He said he still wants an apology from the city for the disruption to his business.

Animal rights activists were furious.

“If anyone deserves an apology, it’s the lobsters,” said Dawn Carr, spokeswoman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, an animal rights organization that has been fighting to shut down the games, which are cropping up nationwide. “Making a game out of the impending demise of a living animal is poor taste at best.”