Follow us on Telegram for the latest updates: https://t.me/mothershipsg

House of Seafood is holding a Facebook Live to address the public and media, following backlash over a publicity stunt where the restaurant's crabs were "walked" for a spot of exercise.

The live session on June 22, 8pm, will be fronted by the the restaurant's founder, Francis Ng.

On June 21, STOMP published a statement from Ng, who said that the act was "spontaneous" and "not a publicity stunt."

Ng added,

"We have a lot of crabs, you see. And that day, we saw the crabs in the cage with no exercise. They are just sitting in the cage the whole day.

[...]

A crab is like a person like that. [Imagine] you keep them locked in a small cage for the whole day. So I thought, 'Ok lah, I bring six crabs out.'

[...]

I think I probably hurt (the feelings) of animal lovers and I am sorry for that. But I did not throw the crabs or hurt them, I just walked them around for five minutes."

The crabs were apparently bought near the seaside, about "10 steps" away from the restaurant. Ng estimated the walk to be about five minutes long.

The resulting Facebook post was meant to be a light-hearted joke, according to Ng.

However, Ng had also told ACRES and SPCA that the crabs were "not really walked," but only posed for photos.

This comes after the animal welfare organisations conducted a joint visit to the restaurant on June 21.

Bowed for 30 seconds over previous fiasco

In 2019, Ng, along with three other staff, bowed deeply for 30 seconds to apologise for another marketing stunt involving live crabs in a claw machine.

Top image via House of Seafood