House of Seafood in Punggol has taken the unusual step of walking their crabs before slaughtering them as food.

In a Facebook post on June 18, the northeastern restaurant at Punggol Point disclosed that it has started taking its crabs meant for sale as food for customers on walks so the sea creatures do not atrophy.

The post was accompanied by a series of photos showing the crabs on leash, a la dogs.

The caption on the post read:

We love our crabs, the same way as everyone love their pets!

To make sure our crabs are 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐲 that can satisfy every of our food patrons, we would bring them out strolling along the 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐳𝐲 𝐏𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐠𝐨𝐥 𝐁𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡, just to get enough exercises...cheers!

Backlash

However, the post has been met with angry reactions, as well as comments accusing the restaurant of cruelty.

One commenter wrote: "It's a crap marketing."

Previous hullabaloo

In 2019, House of Seafood allowed customers to catch live crabs in a claw machine -- at S$5 per try -- to the chagrin of people who found it unacceptable to subject live animals to such treatment before they were eaten.

The game was to allow customers who managed to catch a crab to have it cooked by the restaurant.

But the game involved picking up a crab using unsteady claws, which resulted in the crabs potentially dropped from a height multiple times.

The game was then stopped due to public backlash.

The House of Seafood CEO and three staff subsequently had to apologise to the nation for their actions as they bowed deeply for 30 seconds in contrition in front of the media.

In 2020, the restaurant was put under the spotlight again when it sold surgical masks exclusively to diners for S$21.40 per box during a time when these items were experiencing scarcity, after demand skyrocketed overnight with the outbreak of Covid-19.

Businesses at that time had been warned against profiteering from the shortage of masks.

All photos via House of Seafood