BOSTON — Pity Bob the lobster. Spared from a boiling pot in Denver and set free in Boston Harbor, he might be cooked anyway.

First, he lost a claw on the flight east. Then, his well-meaning rescuers left his other claw bound shut with a rubber band when they dropped him into the ocean.

One other thing: Bob was freed in waters rife with lobster traps.

Now the Denver restaurant owners and TV stations who teamed up to set him loose are fielding calls from viewers horrified to have seen the 10-pound crustacean dropped into the water with that red band still on.

“People call and say, `You killed that lobster,’ and I say, `Do you realize what we do to our lobsters here?”‘ said Robert Hahn, who manages the Chowda House restaurant in Littleton, Colo. “At least he’s got a fighting chance now.”

Bob — who weighs about six times as much as your average restaurant lobster, but at 20 years old might not be as tasty — had been cooped up in a Chowda House tank for a couple of months when he was raffled off for charity at a Christmas party.

A United Airlines pilot offered to fly Bob to Boston and release him, and the owners of the three-restaurant chain in the Denver area flew along, too.

Somewhere along the way, Bob lost one of his claws. Experts say he might have shucked it himself in a defense mechanism triggered by too much handling and stress.