I have a question.

[Texasgal]

Yesterdy... on my way home from work I stopped into my neighborhood Albertsons store.

Albertsons is in an area where there are several grocery stores in a few mile vicinity, so the are mainly over priced and you really have to look and make sure stuff is not expired. The only reason why I ran in is because it's the only place where there are not a boat load of people and I can get in and out quickly.

Anyway....

As I was passing through the store I passed through the seafood area, they have a large "tank" with lobsters right in the middle of the walkway area. I have seen them before but I never really payed much attention to it until yesterday.

What I saw horrified me... The tank water was grey and dirty, upon further inspection I noticed a few "live" lobsters in there, but they were listless and looked as though something was growing on them, as I look some more, I noticed that there were several dead ones too, their claws missing and floating atop the tank. It was really disturbing to me for some reason, so I went to the seafood counter and asked the dude behind the counter what was going on with the tank... he said he didn't know and that he was just part time and usually worked in the produce area.

So... I went to the customer service area and spoke to the mgr on duty, she said that the lobsters always die in there and that they "try" to clean the tank once a MONTH. ONCE A MONTH???? WTF?

Not only do I consider this to be a cruelty issue, but there is a potential health hazard as well.

Whom should I contact? I would love to see PETA get out there and make some noise, but I am not sure if that is the appropriate thing to do. I don't even know if our area has a local PETA branch.

Should I contact the health department instead?

Any advice would be helpful... Thank you!

[RebelOne]

1. I would contact the health department.

It sounds like a health hazard.

[Warpy]

3. It does, indeed

Lobsters start to go bad the second they die, which is why stupermarkets fly them in and keep them alive in tanks until they're purchased.

Having dead material floating on top of it is a HUGE nono. That stuff is growing all sorts of nasty bacteria, and lobster generally isn't cooked long enough to kill all of it.

The board of health needs to be called if they haven't cleaned up that tank after your complaint.

[shockra]

2. Those tanks are sad.

They used to have one at our local grocery. Thankfully, no more.

PETA, Lobster Liberation!

http://www.lobsterlib.com/wycd.html

[livinginphotographs]

4. I agree on the health dept.

That sounds foul, regardless of the cruelty issues.

Shit like that is why I never ate seafood, even when I did eat meat.