Larry the Lobster - On an April 10, 1982 installment of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, the Not-Ready-for-Prime-Time Players threatened to boil a real lobster named "Larry the Lobster" live on-the-air.

As Eddie Murphy informed the audience: [speaks fast] "You want to save Larry the Lobster dial 1-900-720-1808. [speaks slowly]. If you want to kill him dial 1-900-720-1809. Now unless you call in to save him, we're going to boil Larry's little butt right here on national television. Now you call in. The phone company is going to charge you fifty cents, but isn't it worth fifth cents to save Larry's life? Or look at it this way: Isn't it worth half a buck to see us boil Larry on TV?" Nearly 500,000 viewers dialed into the program. The final tally?  KILL LARRY: 227, 452; SAVE LARRY: 239,096.  

TRIVIA NOTE: On the March 2002 installment of the ROSIE O'DONNELL show Rosie had a firefighter from Rhode Island preparing some firehouse recipes during a cooking segment. One of the ingredients was a lobster. Rosie pointed to three live lobsters with their claws tied and told the audience she didn't want to anger PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) by dropping them into the boiling pot live on the air. She then jokingly offered the lobsters a drink from an opened can of Budweiser beer and inferred she'd release them into the Long Island Sound after the show. Ironically, there were already three dead lobsters brewing in another pot. 

In 2005, a web site called "SaveToby.com posted a message threatening to kill a bunny rabbit named Toby and eat him for dinner if people did not send donations. Here is a snippet of the sites message:

"Toby is the cutest little bunny on the planet. Unfortunately, he will DIE on June 30th, 2005 if you don't help....I don’t want to eat Toby, he is my friend, and he has always been the most loving, adorable pet. However, God as my witness, I will devour this little guy unless I receive 50,000$ USD into my account from donations or purchase of merchandise. You can help this poor, helpless bunny’s cause by making donations through my verified PayPal account by clicking on any of the Donate buttons on this site, or by purchasing merchandise at the Savetoby.com online store."

The hoaxster at this site uses the same tactic as seen on other sites like www.savefluffy.com, and the Save Bernd! plea at  http://www.krohm.net/bernd.htm. However, be forewarned. Besides generating sympathy for the plight of these alleged animal victims, the webmasters are racking up lots of money (from pop-up ad revenues) each time you access their site.