Vending Machines in China Now Sells Live Crabs

china vending machine

In China, A Vending Machine That Dispenses Live Crabs-3Mr Liu, a businessperson in China, has invented a vending machine that sells live crabs.

The vending machine has been installed in numerous parts of Hangzhou, the east of Zhejiang province of China. The price of these crabs has been set from US$3-US$9. Ginger and vinegar are also dispensed by this machine for those who like to have condiments.

In China, A Vending Machine That Dispenses Live Crabs-2The moisture and temperature in these vending machines has been attuned in order to keep the seafood fresh. But once the crabs have been bought, they melt down and can move as well.

In China, A Vending Machine That Dispenses Live Crabs-1During China’s Mid-Autumn Festival, Mr Liu is planning to cash in due to the call for crabs and expects to publicize these vending machines at supermarkets and subway stations across the country.

19 comments

  1. Das Shimmering Reply

    Sometimes I’m convinced this is Planet Kindergarten – I may not be particularly evolved myself and I freely admit that, but at times it seems there are whole pockets of nations or cultures who are just from another time zone? They seem ‘modern’ enough – dressed fashionably and they have the latest high tech gadgets, but there is a brutish disconnectedness from the planet they live on that boggles the mind. I don’t know if I am an idealistic hypocrite who only imagines herself to have somehow ‘evolved’ into someone more compassionate or if I’m delusional, but I I’m abhorred by how ‘normal’ many of my fellow planet dwellers seem to find the utmost cruelty to other species and the environment.
    China is crawling all over the globe. Like an army of deadly ants.
    And what I see is scaring me because the fine and high culture they arguably had in parts of their history has seemingly made room for the manifestation of a very cold, calculated type of greed – they are raping the African continent in a whole new different way from how our own ancestors did it a couple of hundred years ago during colonial times. What type of spirit drives that and when will it be enough?
    African governments are happy to accept China’s hand-outs but at a cost we are sure to regret very soon.

  2. Jordan Huckel Reply

    I’m not really sure this could be considered humane. I guess to my tender Australian upbringing some Asian cultures surprise me a little and at times I feel a little repulsed by their animal rights practices. I just feel as though the packaging process for those crabs is less than acceptable. The part about them being half asleep in a box for a day doesn’t sound ‘too’ bad because presumably they’re relatively unaware of the current state they’re in. Though I’m not too sure what happens after those crabs are bought, I feel off about their fate.

    Ha! What do I know? In western countries we only have mass abattoirs. They’re pretty disgusting.

    Oh yeah, one last note. @The (supposed) Americans here condemning a whole culture and any human being who shares the appearance commonly equated with such a culture is, in itself, subhuman beyond contempt. Have you ever heard of an “abattoir”? They’re almost as bad as the holocaust. Actually no, they’re probably worse.

  3. ben Reply

    Just a brief background on these crabs: they are the so called “hairy crabs”, and they are bred and kept in fresh water lakes in China. They are somehow also present in fresh water systems in the UK and the Netherlands recently as well.
    Maybe you guys have no idea how these “hairy crabs” are sold in China, thus causing you to make such comments concerning animal cruelty.
    These crabs are usually sold tied up, in a fridge; very seldom in a water tank. The common practice after “catching” the crabs from the lakes is to tie them up with tough water weed or plastic straps, and then transported and sold in a fridge at around 2-4C. Store keepers sometimes spray water onto the crabs to keep them happy, but the crabs are never returned to a water tank.
    During the season for the crabs (around Autumn time) the turnover for these crabs are very high, and an average Shanghai or Hangzhou person can consume 3-6 crabs in a meal.
    So what’s wrong with the vending machine now?

  4. andy martin Reply

    The ignorant Chinese are subhuman and beyond contempt. Liberals in the United States are working hard to make the world a better place and those slant eyed jerks do whatever they can to destroy it. The whole world should be eating a vegan diet.

    • wan Reply

      I love animal but I not dumb enough by not eating animal for the rest of my life

    • OPPPS Reply

      Liberals in the United States are working hard to make the world a better place? Pfffffffff, yeah and you also bring democracy all over the world and peace, sure. Sorry but you are dumb. This is their culture and we don’t have any rights to criticize them. The west is even worst and more barbarian. If you thing that eating vegetables makes you better that them I advise you to learn what you country did and what is still doing. Sorry for that guys but this stupid comment made me angry. Also love animals and I think that kind of sell living creature in that machine is bad.

  5. karl jones Reply

    I love crabs.. but tell you what crabs have to go through the toughest time to get on ones plate. first trapped in shipping tanks for days, then containers stuffed with crab on the roads to stores.. then small tanks stuffed with crabs in the stores. now these vending machines..

  6. karl jones Reply

    make the chinese people live in suitcases for couple of days or weeks.. oh wait, they probably have done that as some kind of toughness training to come into foreign countries.. heard that from chinese guys.. so i am not stating something out of my imagination…

  7. Baritone Reply

    The Chinese just don’t get it do they…!!!
    They think they have such a fine culture where Ming sits happily alongside Mengele…!!!

  8. john Reply

    I don’t get it. Do Chinese people eat live crabs on the go? If not, then what possible advantage does commodifying them in packages and dispensing them in vending machines do? Crabs have to eat and maintain certain temperatures and moisture levels to live, have you ever seen a dead crab on the beach only 20 feet from the ocean but bleached in the sun, putting them in vending machines means risking all of your product. It’s not smart business, unless your actually turning them over at a rate of 200 crabs a day like the video explains, and I honestly doubt. I guess in that case the crabs are only in there for a day or two before being purchased, after which they are killed.

    Oh ya, and to those who don’t want to see crabs uncomfortable, and are willing to damn an entire nation because of it. Visit a slaughter house.

  9. Sue Powis Reply

    Nothing the Chinese does surprises me Living insect key rings Forced foetal destruction at term without consent
    Kidnapping and murdering women as ancestor wives for dead men
    They are subhuman
    I never buy Chinese made goods, difficult but not impossible
    I would never assist any Chinese person
    The earth would be better for their absence.

  10. marcela lopez olmos Reply

    Why people don’t leave animals alone once for all! That machine is horrible, animals are not a piece of bread, they live, they do feel pain and fear. I hate this kind of actions and business against animals, for me that is dirty money.

    • Michelle Reply

      You can go F**K yourself for being so ignorant and cruel. Do you have any idea what China has been through? Billions of Chinese die at the hand of a western. Tell me then where was your computer made? Where was your phone made? Where is the packaging for something you ordered from made? Maybe you don’t understand but China is providing everything for you now. Go a day without touching, looking and eating something Chinese. I dare you. Then go criticize Chinese. Go burn in hell.

      • Mia Reply

        This is NOT an excuse for selling living animals in such machines. Really. This is grows.

      • Ted Reply

        Michelle most westerners appreciate the hard work of the Chinese people. Don’t listen to this dum-dum. I am sure he is eating chicken, beef or fish tonight and if not he is wearing a leather belt.
        Westerners want to see the Chinese people (including in rural areas not just the city dwellers ) have a good and prosperus life. A rising tide lifts all boats.

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