Canadians bid to free 100-year-old lobster

Lobster-loving Canadians are trying to persuade a fish market in easternmost New Brunswick province to set free a huge crustacean believed to be more than 100 years old, its owner said Friday.

The 10-kilogram (22-pound) male named Big Dee-Dee was caught earlier this month in the Bay of Fundy and is now on display at the Shediac fish market Big Fish.

According the store owner, Denis Breau, it was to be auctioned off in the coming weeks.

But a massive campaign to stop it from landing in a pot of boiling water has unexpectedly kicked off, with online petitions and a woman in Vancouver on Canada's Pacific Coast enlisting the help of the Vancouver Humane Society and animal rights group PETA.

Laura-Leah Shaw of Vancouver told public broadcaster CBC cooking the lobster would be barbaric.

"He's being thrown into a pot of boiling water and it's painful. It hurts," she said, urging Big Dee-Dee's supporters to pool their monies to buy his freedom.

More than 1,000 tourists per day have stopped by the shop to see the giant lobster, Breau told AFP. "About half say they want to throw a big party and eat him, the other half want to liberate him," he said.

One boy ogling the creature through the glass of its tank said he'd like it as a pet, said Breau.

The highest bid so far on Friday was 3,500 dollars from a woman in Ontario to free the lobster, he added. "Liberating him is probably the right thing to do, but we'll see."

Fisheries officials have also said they must give it a check-up to ensure it is disease-free and sign a permit before the lobster can be returned to the sea.