ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, July 18, 1996 TAG: 9607180050
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: KENNEBUNKPORT, MAINE
SOURCE: Associated Press
STANLEY, a crustacean set to be freed in what was to be a media event, missed out on what likely would have been his biggest photo op.
A 13-pound lobster that was rescued from a tank in a Wal-Mart in Virginia missed his 15 minutes of fame Wednesday but got a new lease on life as he was released into the Atlantic.
Animal rights activists who secured Stanley's freedom apologized for what they said was a mix-up about where the 24-inch lobster was to be set free. As television crews waited along a beach in this seaside resort town, Stanley was taken to a rockbound spot a quarter of a mile away.
Bruce Friedrich of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, based in Norfolk, apologized for the confusion but said the group had achieved its goal of saving the giant crustacean.
``In any event, Stanley is going to be living another 75 years in Maine, we hope,'' said Friedrich, who estimated his current age at about 100.
While Stanley missed out on TV time in Maine, he got celebrity treatment in Virginia after his release from the Farmville Wal-Mart. He was shipped overnight by Federal Express to Portsmouth, N.H., where PETA activist Ofelia Rotunda transported him on the final leg to Kennebunkport.
Stanley's moment of freedom was recorded on film by his liberators.
``We got a small amount of 8-millimeter film,'' said Neil Robinson, Rotunda's husband. ``But the main thing is that he was alive and doing well.''
Robinson said his wife has released about 20 lobsters that PETA shipped to her from various parts of the country since the spring of 1995.
LENGTH: Short : 43 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Bruce Friedrich, of People for the Ethical Treatmentby CNBof Animals, puts Stanley, a 100-year-old lobster, into a cooler in
Richmond on Tuesday.|