Would You Eat A Lion? U.S Exotic Meat Trade


A Siberian Tiger by John and Karen Hollingsworth
http://fohn.net/tiger-pictures-facts/

You would think in a civilised western society the trade in exotic animal meats would be a thing of the past, particuarly in the matter of critically endangered species. It isn't.

Today I was reading a post on Omer's blog Of Cats and one particular item in amongst the many interesting pieces of news Omer had posted up was a very disturbing and unbelievable U.S website that sells exotic meat for human consumption. Included in their list of meats for sale were Lion, and a plan after USDA approval to sell Tiger and Zebra meat. According to this website the tigers, lions and zebras are bred on ranches. Something is terribly wrong here. The U.S.A are party to the Convention to the International Trade of Endangered Species and have been since 1975. From my research 23 or so U.S States have banned the sale and trade of exotic species and yet there is a website promoting openly the future sale (after USDA approval) of Tiger meat. Since writing this post I have discovered that orginally the Lion meat was advertised as being sourced from South Africa. This quotation came from the Born Free Blog

“Lion meat to be a much better quality cat meat than tiger meat. Lion meat is unique and a little more expensive meat but we like to respond to customer requests so here it is! If you are looking for something completely different, this is the product for you. Lion meat will definitely give the neighbours and friends something to talk about! Why not take the plunge and try our most unusual meat. Farm-raised in South Africa.”

And this interesting piece from Monstrous.com

The meat was advertised on the company's website as originating from lions farmed in South Africa.

But within 24 hours of the activists being alerted last week, the wording was changed and now reads: "Our Lions are ranch-raised in the United States of America."

The national Environment Department confirmed that both a Cites (Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species) permit and veterinary health permit would be required to export lion meat.

It said no permit applications had been received by any of the provinces and no permits had been issued.

"We encourage anyone who has information about this to contact us and we will contact our counterparts in the US to look into the matter," said spokeswoman Roopa Singh.

Allan Perrins, chief executive of the Cape of Good Hope SPCA, is among those slamming the practice.

"We are sickened and re-pulsed to know that one of our 'Big 5' is being exploited through commercial farming, to please and tempt the palates of a rich and greedy, indifferent minority who are obviously too short-sighted to see the potential harm that their support of this in-vogue bush-meat trade will cause," he said.

The trade in Tiger meat and parts has the focus of an international campaign for some years. With fewer and fewer animals now in the wild the thought that in a member country to the C.I.T.E.S Convention would not allow the farming of either Lions or of Tigers for the sole purpose of human consumption. The focus on the trade of tiger parts and meat as well the issue of Tiger Farming has mainly been on China and yet this is happening in a western country that seems to be turning a blind eye to what's happening in their own back yard.

The World Wildlife Fund considers Tigers as a priority species. The world population of the remaining six subspecies is declining. They are all on the ICUN Red List and on the C.I.T.E.S Endangered Species List. I have contacted the World Wildlife Fund, as well as P.E.T.A, and now the Save the Tiger Fund asking them all why Tiger meat and farming has been allowed to exist in the U.S.A or if not why is Lion meat and potentially tiger meat being allowed to be sold at all?. I'll let you know the answers. I had also emailed the Company concerned but I keep getting a Fail to send notification....food for thought there (excuse the pun)

I encourage everyone who reads this post to go over to Omer's blog and read the details. The link for this Exotic Animal Meat Website is also there. Also I have linked to two other sites read the comments and the article it explains my email was being returned. Your thoughts please.

And an update on this post. Patricia has kindly provided this link concerning Brentwood Trading Group and its owner Anshu Pathak being involved in a courtcase. Thank you Patricia much appreciated. Patricia also tells me she's now spreading the word as well. Awesome!

RELATED ARTICLES

FLORIDA RESTAURANT SELLS LION MEAT - From Wildlife Extra

LION MEAT RESPONDS TO ROAR - The Food Channel USA

STOP SELLING LION MEAT AT AMAZON PETITION - From the Petition Site

BUYING LION MEAT - WHY IT'S OKAY - From the Rule .303 Blog

INTERNATIONAL DEMAND FOR LION MEAT ON INCREASE - Eyewitness News

Comments

  1. Thanks for spreading the word Liz, and for posting more of the relevant links on the matter. It's indeed quite disturbing and I hope the concerned authorities in the US look into this matter and stop the illegal farming and slaughter of these precious animals. Take care and all the best!

    Purrs to Sasquatch and everybody else at the farm :)

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  2. Hi Omer

    Thanks for making me aware of it. This is a terrible business and yes it needs to be stopped. I'll let you know when I've received some answers from the WWF, PETA and Save the Tiger Fund. We can't afford to lose these precious animals as you said. Too precious.

    Purrs to you too and Sasquatch says he didn't like the taste of the big bug so he gave it to the silly hooman to eat instead...yuk.LOL

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  3. That is totally vile and revolting and disgusting.
    WTF are they thinking?

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  4. Lions and Tigers and everything else, Oh My!!!!!! Thanks so much for bringing this to our attention. I searched Amazon and could not find anything but found a company that is sponsored through one of Yahoo's platforms that sells all sorts of endangered animals. Needless to say I attempted to try and email Yahoo.

    My resident zookeeper says that high predators such as tigers and lions should not be tasty.

    I guess that we can beat the bushes and hopefully flush out these greedy creeps via our networks!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Guys

    Jayne - you put the words right in my mouth and in my fingers here. Disgusting, abhorrent and downright greedy. We should all boycott this site. I've stuck it on Twitter. Hopefully people will check it out.

    Patricia - Thank you for being so concerned. Yes that site on Yahoo is the one and the same. They changed their wording to say the Tigers and Lions etc were being farmed in the USA. I've posed some questions to WWF, PETA and Save the Tiger Fund. WWF have responded with a "We'll be giving this to the right people in our organisation to investigate" PETA sent me an automated one. I ahve yet to hear from Save the Tiger fund. This has to be stopped. I'm mad enough about it to do something no matter how small it may be. Everyone who cares for Wildlife needs to be made aware.

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  6. I googled Brentwood Trading Group and found that they had been sued by the American fine produce distributors, Harry and David out of Medford, OR for attempting to ride on their coat tails. In this case they were trading as Organic Fruit of the Month and also Premium Enterprises. See:
    http://dozier-internet-law.blogspot.com/2008_10_01_archive.html

    I believe that the owner is someone by the name of Ansnu Pathak. I also made a comment on Facebook and will pass along info to a friend who was part of the CITES people...her husband is a renown reptile curator.

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  7. Patricia you are awesome. Thank you! I've just read the Case Law concerning Brentwood trading very very interesting. I've put the site on twitter to spread the word but your contact in C.I.T.E.S is the best yet. That has just made my year. This has to be stopped one way or another. I think this guy is doing this illegally but what an idiot advertising a critically endangered species such as tiger on his website. I'll add that link onto this post.

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