THERE ARE A LOT OF “STRANGE” MEATS IN THE WORLD. LIKE LION MEAT, AN "EXOTIC" DISH FROM THE USA, BUT ILLINOIS HAS PROPOSED A BAN ON IT

So much for horsemeat: “Horsegate" drew mixed reactions, from scandal to an uproar, from indignation to the "horseburger" fashion; it is not unusual meat to eat, or at least not the strangest. Throughout the world, for culture, survival or even fashion, some people eat the most unusual meat.
For example, "bush meat" and “forest meat"; in other words, meat of wild animals mostly from Africa but also Asia and South America, killed for survival or hunted legally or illegally to be sold to local markets, transcending all boundaries to reach the borders of the Western world: meat of gorillas, monkeys, ungulates, rodents and birds, iguanas, llamas, camels, emus, yaks, turtles, but also tigers and lions. And it is this "exotic" dish of lion meat that is consumed in the United States, where the phenomenon was brought to light because of the proposal to ban consumption of feline meat by a Congressman of the U.S. State of Illinois, Luis Arroyo. And, on the Italian web page of the famous magazine National Geographic, associations for the protection of animals from WWF to Panthera and vendors of this type of meat voice their opinions.

The Congressman from Illinois proposed making it “illegal for anyone to slaughter a lion, or to keep, breed, import or export from the State, buy or sell lions for the purpose of slaughter”. From here it follows that there are people who eat lion meat: "frankly, it's the first time I've heard of eating the meat of big cats”, said Massimiliano Rocco, head of the Species Program, WWF Italy Traffic and forests. “in Europe we have the problem of importing the so-called "bush meat", the meat of wild animals mostly of African origin, even gorilla meat has been sequestered, but so far, not lion meat”.

According to Congressman Luis Arroyo, in his State there are at least two sites that sell African lion meat, and Allan Crawford, an expert on the illegal trade of wildlife in the World Wildlife Fund, said that in the United States lions are bred with the purpose of becoming meat for restaurants: "there is no evidence that the trade of lions in the United States comes from an illegal source”. Richard Czimer, owner of Czimer's Game and Sea Foods Inc. of Homer Glen, Illinois, claims to have bought USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) certified lion meat, and from his point of view, the ban on lion meat would be a "restriction of freedom of choice" of what people eat. "It would be unfair”, Czimer says “to my clients and anyone who wants to try something new. Very few lions are killed compared to the hundreds of thousands of cattle slaughtered every day”.

“Yet, eating the meat of carnivores is a very bad idea”, replies Luke Hunter, president of Panthera, an organization for the defense of the big cats. To begin with, the large carnivore populations are declining around the world: the African lion is classified as a threatened species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and is at risk of extinction in some West African countries. Although lions in the wild are not hunted for food, the main concern is that the already inadequate legislation in the United States that regulates the possession, breeding and trade of big cats in captivity (especially tigers) can fuel a black market of feline meat, Will Gartshore of WWF said.

Also, being near and having anything to do with the carcasses of large wild carnivore animals can be dangerous, because they eat various prey and accumulate various pests and diseases: in 2007, for example, a biologist in Arizona died of a severe lung infection after having dissected the carcass of a puma.

"In addition to the ethical problem of increasing poaching”, said Massimiliano Rocco, “of species often already at risk of extinction, another problem related to consuming "bush meat" is health, linked to diseases that are imported along with the illegal material", confirmed Massimiliano Rocco. All this, however does not stop some people who continue to consume "exotic" meat. In the U.S., some people eat the meat of black bears hunted legally (not considered an endangered species). The U.S. company Exotic Meats and More sells other oddities such as iguana, llama, camel, and another company, the Buy Exotic Meats, offers emu, yaks and turtle.
Eating African lion meat, confirmed Rocco, is unusual in other parts of the world, including the home of the feline itself: in Africa it is considered inedible, says Hunter. The biggest consumers of exotic meat live in Asia, where "almost every wild species is good to eat: you can find just about anything in restaurants in Thailand and Vietnam”, including tiger. In Asia the tiger parts market is flourishing: according to Hunter, in Asia there are between 4.000 and 5.000 tigers bred in captivity to be slaughtered and sold on various markets.
"In Italy instead”, says Massimiliano Rocco, “the possession of wild animals is strictly prohibited, while in the U.S. there is an impressive number of big cats and animals kept in the garden, or even indoors : in fact, in the U.S. alone there are more tigers in captivity than exist in the world in nature. It was therefore inevitable that someone would think of breeding big cats to eat. This is a practice that will have an impact on the international level. If this trend spreads to Western countries what will we be able to say to China, for example, to make them to stop the trafficking and consumption of parts of wild animals”?