June 18, 2005

Having gorillas for dinner. Suprisingly informative article about eating gorilla meat. [slightly shocking photo] via Gastronomica
posted by Zanshin 19 years ago
  • I'm agog. But still somehow hungry.
  • Practically cannibalism.
  • The ones I had over for dinner ended up tossing the plates around and breaking the chairs.
  • But it doesn't really provide any answers - just tsktsking over the terrible African eating habits. For medical reasons, for biodoversity reasons and maybe for moral (but the medical is so important that it makes this a moot point), humans should not eat apes. But traditionally "protected" areas have cut people off from grazing grounds, from getting safe (and non-endangered) bushmeat - the history of wilderness preserves in Africa have put the desires of the west to preserve the wonder and beauty ahead of the local people's needs. We killed most of our big animals and chopped down most of our forest (especially in Europe), but feel the need to police other people's. The better way to go about it may be education on the medical level - people in Africa understand AIDs far better than most people in the West. If they understand that butchering bushmeat was the way the virus came about, and that continuing to hunt and to be exposed to the flesh could bring about worse diseases, maybe that will be far more effective at ending the market for ape-meat.
  • Yes they are indigenous people, but its bizarre to me how people can justify eating any meat...but to eat such intelligent and peaceful creatures such as gorillas is just beyond me.
  • freeasharold - people normally justify eating meat because they are hungry. Meat is an excellent source of protien. I heard in a lecture once that the Astecs may have suffered from certain protien deficiencies, due to the dense population and relative lack of domestic meat animals. (I believe they had chickens, but no ungulates or swine).
  • You just gotta draw the line somewhere.
  • >You just gotta draw the line somewhere. Yeah, but everybody draws it in a different place. Gorillas are peaceful and intelligent; ought we confine ourselves to eating violent, stupid animals? Are you condoning cannibalism? Why draw the line at the edge of the animal kingdom? Green beans are peaceful, too, and they're alive; they're not anything we recognize as sentient, but what the hell do we know about what it's like to be a green bean? In order to stay alive, you have to kill SOMEthing and eat it. If this seems unfair, reflect that all who nibble will one day be nibbled.
  • A very good place to draw the line is at species who have a better than average chance at passing on deadly viruses. So, not eating gorillas, or most primates, makes medical sense. Diseases can cross species from birds and other mammals, but these are usually from living in very close proximity to them, and is less of a risk.
  • Also, you can draw the line at endangered species (seals are still fair game, whales are not), but not all hunters of endangered species are evil characitures out for profit. Many of them are just people trying to get by - any action has to take that into account. And involve them, or else they will have no stake in cooperating.
  • Gorilla, the other white meat.
  • all who nibble will one day be nibbled Behold the Breatharians!
  • Yes, We Have Canned Monkey Meat ran across this the other day, and well, this thread kinda reminded me of it.
  • Whoo, goetter- that's scary stuff. Talk to your mitochondrians and ask them to leave! ("It would be appropriate and courteous to acknowledge the positive role they have played in your life (lives) and to thank them for their participation.")
  • Actually, most bushmeat is eaten by the well-off in Africa. Farmed meats such as beef and goat are far less expensive in the market.
  • 'At least three of Greve’s followers have starved to death while trying to purify themselves with total fasting. Despite the dangerousness of her insane teachings, in the fall of 1999, the Australian television program “60 Minutes” tested her ability to live on prana, the “light of God.” '
  • people in Africa understand AIDs far better than most people in the West Yeah, right, sure they do.
  • This is disgusting. It's like eating your brother. People are so beyond help in consciously choosing their protein. Crickets, anyone? Why kill off what's left of our fellow bipeds? Just because we *can*?
  • Wolof - they understand the destruction it has wrought. There are also people in the West who believe you can get AIDs from toilet seats or by hugging an infected person. Ezra Kilo - the article said that in the cities, bushmeat cost more. But in the remoter villages, bushmeat cost less than farmed meat.
  • More about understanding AIDS.
  • What the hell is wrong with you people?? /Stooge_slap
  • All the more reason for education on how AIDs passes from simians and why you shouldn't eat them.
  • KOKO SMASH.
  • !