Crawfish Gnaws Off Its Own Leg To Save Itself From Boiling Soup

What will you do when the shit goes down, man? If you were faced with certain death in a giant pot of boiling water, would you be willing to do anything to save yourself? Anything like gnawing off one of your own appendages?

Yeah, me neither, which makes us all less brave than this now-viral hero crawfish. He escaped his dinner destiny in a China restaurant by escaping a pot of boiling water by gnawing off his leg and crawling to safety. In doing so, he now joins the ranks of rebellious seafood like this flopping tuna steak that also refused to accept its imminent death. Or this fetching crawfish mascot smoking a cigarette and hanging out on a beer can.

There are now a bizillion versions of this crawfish's hero journey on YouTube, many featuring a jaunty soundtrack:

This story even has a happy ending: The Washington Post reports that the original video was captured by YouTube user Jiuke, who has now adopted the crawfish as a pet and has placed him in a snazzy aquarium. We would expect nothing less for such a crustacean hero, who now can just kick back and chillax until his arm regenerates. This incident certainly offers us a lot of food for thought at our next crawfish boil—but godspeed, crustacean warrior.