In general, humankind disrespects animals. This is due arrogance, ignorance and fear. Jay Leno jokes about lion meat – “a roaring controversy”. Lion meat products are a growing trend in America, which is why I have revisited the subject.
If you look for a video on “lion meat” on YouTube you’ll find some with a few thousand views (low) and they’ll be of a chief cooking a lion meat burger or something in his restaurant. Just below these videos you might see one of people stealing meat from a wild lion in Africa. That video has over a million views (a hell of a lot). People are far more interested in themselves. Humans are human-centric. In general people are more interested in their little superficial arguments and relationships that go wrong than the big issues concerning animal welfare.
The lion is incorrectly dubbed “the king of jungle” because lions don’t live in jungles – they live on open plains. The lion has become livestock in America. It is not illegal to slaughter a lion for meat. It appears not to be regulated and I suspect one reason why lions are butchered for their meat is because there are so many of them in back yard zoos in the USA, ill-cared for, and with no one to look after them properly. The lion is better off supplying a local restaurant with their flesh, some people believe.
The back yard lions and tigers of America are a scandal, really. People tend to see them as “pets”. I find it distasteful and disrespectful of a proud and wonderful animal to reduce him/her to a pet and then a burger.
The flesh eaters of America will shout, “what is the difference between lions and livestock?” Somehow there is a difference and it is in our genes; it is hard-wired into our heads that we should respect the lion and that we shouldn’t eat it or keep it in some crappy cage in some seedy yard behind a run down trailer park or whatever.
Putting aside the emotional connection, the fact that the preparing and eating lion meat products is unregulated almost certainly leads to abuse of the lion.
Lion meat products are sold in many restaurants in America. A major supplier is Exotic Meat Market owned by Anshu Pathak. He operates from Perris, California. His face and website are in the picture heading this page.
Conclusion: I believe that lion meat is bad, not the meat but the whole concept. The main reason why I believe this is because it encourages:
- a disrespect for the wild cat species;
- abuse of wild cat species and the lion in particular;
- the keeping of lions by unqualified and unknowledgeable individuals in backyard zoos.
The world lion population is declining. The lion is classified a “Vulnerable” under the IUCN Red List. Are lions being imported from Africa? Are some of these lions shot under the canned lion hunt businesses, an equally distasteful aspect of human life.
If you wish you can read what Elisa says about lion meat……
The Lion
The Lion, Panthera leo, is the second biggest of the natural big cats in existence today. The Tiger is bigger. A cross between a male Lion and a female Tiger is called a Liger. These will grow bigger than either parent species, but of course this is not a natural animal because they do not normally cross in the wild.
Social
Cats in general are loners. Lions are an exception. They will live in groups called prides.
A pride may have several related mature males and several females with their cubs. Prides of 15 or more lions exist, and one of forty has been reported.
While in a pride the females do the hunting as well as looking after the cubs. A lion can also survive alone. A solitary lion of either sex will hunt.
about-lion-king-of-jungle-and-facts
Having visited the Gir forests in 2012 and viewing the majestic Asian lions from a few feet find it pathetic to think that these majestic beasts are packaged expensive meat in restaurants in U.S.A.But the, dogs and cats are also edible specialities in many Asian Country’s,common human pets as food.Check this link for a glimpse of these majestic beasts as seen in the wild. :-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oo0qIOd6XY0
I hate so many humans. It’s awful 🙁
I used to think that ensuring every child visited a slaughterhouse would massively reduce the amount of animals killed for food.
Alas, some people seem keener than ever on causing death to animals themselves, re’ canned hunting.
I like your conclusion Michael.
America is desperately in need of federal laws governing animal welfare. They are one of the richest countries in the world yet are known globally as a country with very poor overall standards of animal welfare.
To me, human beings are out of the evolutionary race. Evolution takes millions of years, we have run before we can even ethically walk.
I wonder how outraged people would be if Mr Pathak sold Toddler Meat or Wolf Meat?
Lion meat is bad but to vegetarians so is any other kind of meat, poultry or fish.
The problem is that people think of animals collectively, they don’t think of each individual animal with emotions of pain and fear just like ours, or how wrong it is for each of those individuals to suffer.
Once you start thinking of each and every animal born only to die, it makes it easier to turn veggie.
Humans are programmed to be ‘top of the food chain’ but gradually more are thinking deeper. We see many more people in the veggie section of our supermarkets now and most of them are young.
Human beings are evolving very slowly, we are not as superior as we think we are because animals evolve far quicker.