I’d Be Lion if I Said I’d Eat Lion

After all that hub-bub about Ikea’s tasty horseballs, um I mean, meatballs made with horse meat, I’d like to talk about so called “exotic meat” in general. I’m all for trying something new. I might fancy myself a “foodie” even, but I try to be thoughtful in my food decisions. I see no problem with horse meat because, as some have rightly pointed out, horses are basically the same as cows. We love to eat cows in America but horses somehow cross the line because we ride on them? They’re cuter? I won’t presume to know. However, cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, venison, elk, buffalo and even horses are all prey animals. Prey animals are meant to be eaten in the ecosystem by predators. That’s why I don’t understand people who eat predators. If you eat a predator you’re throwing the ecosystem out of whack.

Lion eating contest. (It’s probably cherry pie)

In Illinois, there’s a proposed new law to ban, “slaughter[ing] a lion or for any person to possess, breed, import or export from this State, buy, or sell lions for the purpose of slaughter”. I think this law makes sense. I don’t know exactly how much of a demand there is for lion meat, but I’m going to assume it’s a problem because of the proposed law. I just don’t understand the fascination with eating a lion. In Africa, where the lions are most plentiful, they don’t commonly eat lion because it’s gross. Therefore, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that most people who eat it are just eating to say they’ve eaten a lion. In my opinion, that’s just plain dumb. And note to those people, I’m sorry about your penis.

Food is supposed to be about taste. Why can’t we just stick to exotic prey animals? I say this in regard to hunting as well. I have no problem with hunting if you, 1) kill quickly and expertly, 2) eat what you kill and 3) kill prey animals. I do think it’s important to eat happy meat. Compare  your typical supermarket, feed-lot cow to a cow that’s allowed to eat grass naturally to a deer that’s been wild its whole life. I’d rather be the deer, live the deer’s life, do deer things on my deer schedule, go to my deer job and live with my dear, deer wife. Apparently, I’m a lesbian when I’m a deer.

[ photos by:

DVIDSHUB &

Tambako the Jaguar