June 28, 2010, - 1:29 pm
Would You Eat Lion Meat? Lion Burgers Under Fire in Arizona
I’ve written about a similar matter before, when a Missouri legislator wanted to legalize horse meat packing plants in the state. I wrote that I was all for it. Because of that, Bonni Intall, the crazy woman who owns and runs Bare Naked Islam, went nuts, attacking my readers in the comments section, saying she’d eat their dogs, making bigoted statements against religious Jews like myself for keeping kosher (claiming it was okay for her to be anti-Semitic b/c she has Jewish heritage), and calling all of you readers “gullible” and stupid in an e-mail to me, in which she continued to viciously and fallaciously attack religious Jews and kashrut (the noun form of kosher). (If you visit her site, that’s what you’re supporting.) **** UPDATE: Bonni Intall of Bare Naked Islam responds in a long, unhinged e-mail, “You are a c**t.” [Asterisks inserted by me.] You stay, classy and sane, Bonni. ****
As I said then, I would not eat horse meat because it is not kosher, and it would turn my stomach to eat it, even if it was not prohibited by my religious diet. But I see eating horses as no different from eating chicken or beef. They are all animals, meant to be consumed or otherwise serve man. The same goes for lions. They’re now serving it in Arizona in honor of South Africa and the World Cup. Cameron Selogie, owner of Il Vinaio restaurant, is serving African lion meat burgers. I wouldn’t eat it–religious rules prohibit me from doing so, and if they didn’t, I still wouldn’t eat it. But I see no reason for the outcry about it. Lions are no different from any other animal. If people choose to eat it, enjoy.
Selogie is doing big biz with his lion meat entree. Reservations are sold out for a chance to eat lion burgers at his establishment. There is a waiting list of 100 diners. But animal rights activists picketed him and have sent him death threats. The same happened a while ago when a Dunedin, Florida restaurant also served lion meat and that of other exotic animals. As I’ve noted before, there is nothing special about lions or horses that makes them any more worthy of being spared the dinner plate than a cow, a salmon, or a chicken. And the typical animal rights activists, like PETA–or as I call ’em, PUTAh a/k/a People for the Unethical Treatment of Animals And humans–don’t want you eating any of those, not just the the lions.
Would you eat it? Apparently, this is not commonly eaten in Africa, unlike the way dogs, cats, and snakes which are frequently eaten elsewhere. Reports say eating lion meat is shunned in Africa, and that the animals are only hunted for trophies, which seems to me to be counter-ethical, since the consumption aspect seems more worthy. Lion meat is very lean–so lean that Selogie must mix 20% ground beef into the burger. He described the meat’s taste as “slightly gamey, “like savory beef jerky.” What?–Not the usual “tastes like chicken”?
For me, I’ll stick with the standard fish, chicken, (very rarely) beef, dairy, and plant-based diet. No exotic foods for me. So glad my religion keeps me away from this stuff. Yuck. But if you like it, eat to your heart’s content. I’m very libertarian on that stuff.
Again, would you eat the lion burgers? Is there any kind of meat you would not eat? What is the most exotic thing you’ve tasted? Did you enjoy it? Why or why not?
Tags: animals, anti-Semitic, anti-Semitism, Arizona, Bare Naked Islam, Bonni Intall, Cameron Selogie, exotic meat, Il Vinaio, Jews, kashrut, kosher, lion burgers, lion meat, lionmeat, meat, Mesa, Orthodox Jews, unhinged
Lions eat us. I don’t see any reason why we can’t be as open-minded about them.
BernardL on June 28, 2010 at 1:46 pm