- Pictures of a man taking three crabs for a walk in Tseung Kwan O have had a huge response online
- It was later revealed to be part of a promotional stunt by a local online food delivery company
Reactions ranged from jokes about crabs for dinner and how crabs only walk sideways to a serious question about whether it was animal cruelty. Photo: FacebookThe internet in Hong Kong is losing its mind over a man and his three “pet” crabs.
Two photos of a man “walking” his crabs on a cycle path in Hong Kong were shared early this month with the more than 150,000 Facebook users in the local Tseung Kwan O Home Group.
The photos were taken in the daytime and showed a man with his three “pets” which had their pincers bound with string.
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The Facebook user who posted the photos, Sam Ho, said in his post: “The more I look at them, the hungrier I become. I wonder how their owner deals with this temptation.”
The photos have generated hundreds of interactions from group members, with more than 1,700 likes and 160 comments at the time of writing. One person jokingly asked: “The crabs walk sideways, so he tied the string the wrong way. How can the crabs walk forward?”
Another person shared a picture of a cooked crab on a dining table.
A third suggested that because it was a hot day: “The crabs’ ‘feet’ were probably already cooked”.
A group member with similar thoughts then speculated: “The crabs must have got heatstroke.” This prompted another to reply: “You don’t understand. He must be cooking the crabs by walking them.”
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One person wondered if the crabs were being harmed and asked: “Is it animal cruelty to walk around in the sun with a tied-up animal that lives in the water?”
Some people theorised that it was some form of “performance art”.
The truth emerged the following day when it was revealed the man walking the crabs, and also Facebook photos of a woman pushing a fish tank around in a pram in the same area on the same day, were both stunts promoting a local online food delivery company.