Lion Burger World Cup Tribute in Arizona Stirs Ire


Phoenix. Offering up lion burgers as a tribute to the World Cup in South Africa is getting a Phoenix Valley restaurant into controversy.

The Il Vinaio restaurant in downtown Mesa has received a bomb threat and around 250 e-mails from animal rights activists after it announced it would offer lion as a special to honor the soccer tournament.

“We thought that since the World Cup was in Africa ... that the lion burger might be interesting for some of our more adventurous customers,” owner Cameron Selogie told Reuters.

The restaurant is offering the lion burgers at $21, served with spicy homemade chips and roast corn on the cob.

Selogie said that the lion being offered was raised at a U.S. Department of Agriculture regulated free-range farm in Illinois -- a fact that has soothed some protesters.

“Most of them, when we tell them the facts, that this is farm raised and it doesn’t hurt the endangered animals, seem pretty reasonable,” he said.


Reuters

I bet that in the mane, they'll do a roaring trade to those who are feline peckish.

In fact, business might be so good they might have to have a claws on the menu saying only one per customer.

Gives you paws for thought huh!



Sorry about that folks. I just couldn't resist it!

Yum Yum, I bet it won't stop my stomach from growling.

I guess they'll advertise it as the PURRRRRRFECT BURGER!

I will take two please and put them on Steve's tabby soory I just had to say it

isn't it sleeping time in south africa

Rapier like wit NEVER takes time off to sleep!

quote:

Selogie said that the lion being offered was raised at a U.S. Department of Agriculture regulated free-range farm in Illinois

HUH? I had no idea FEA/USDA/Uncle Sam were in the free range lion business and in Illinois!?!

Do we secretly have T-Rex free ranging in Texas or Rhino in Rhode Island?

I was talking to my Uncle in Idaho last night and he is absolutely pissed about the wolf-elk situation. Well, OK, he and thousands of other hunters. Areas he has hunted since 1957 have been decimatedby the Wolf populations and what survives is being taken by the growing Grizzly populations.

Why don't we put Wolf and Grizz on the grill?

The eleven most terrifying words in the English language are..."I'm with the Feceral Government and I'm here to protect you!"

Are these mountain lion or African lion burgers? I'd be curious to see a place "farming" lions. I guess it would be similar to the tiger farms China has, but I'm surprised to hear someone raises lions in the US for food.

What's next? Free range lion hunts in Illinois

Canned burgers?

does it taste like chicken!!!!! or P@#*Y

Gents

Back in tha late 70's or early 80's I was dining in a very nice restaurant in Great Falls, Va., the Serbian Crown (still in business!).

That was in my (already heavy) D.R. days but before my safari days. They had lion on the menu as a special. After a few vodkas (slushy with fruit) I was served my entre. The lion was nice and "different". It was much like a pot roast. Very interesting. Looking back I'm happy to say that I tried it.

Don

Hunting the lion burger butcher By Annalyn Censky, staff reporter

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A small Arizona restaurant found itself at the center of a nationwide backlash that included a bomb threat after it announced plans to offer lion burgers this week as part of a World Cup promotion.

But following the supply chain back to the mom-and-pop butcher that processed the alleged lion meat turns up an even more bizarre tale.

The story started when Cameron Selogie, owner of Il Vinaio restaurant in Mesa, Ariz., bought about 10 pounds of so-called African lion meat, planning to mix it with ground beef to make burgers honoring the FIFA World Cup's South African location. Selogie sent an e-mail newsletter to his restaurant's patrons advertising the special.

That newsletter -- which was the sole publicity Selogie had planned -- exploded into a media blitz when one of the e-mail recipients turned out to be an animal activist.

She spread word to a local TV station, and the news has since circled the globe, even garnering a brief write-up in the online version of London's Daily Telegraph.

Lion burgers are an attention-grabbing idea, but it raises the question: How, exactly, does an Arizona restaurant manage to get its hands on African lion meat?

Welcome to the mysterious world of back-alley exotic meat purveyance.

Selogie said he bought the meat through a Phoenix distributor, Gourmet Imports-Wild Game -- a one-man operation owned by Rick Worrilow. Selogie says he did his research, and was told that the meat came from a free-range farm in Illinois that is regulated by the United States Department of Agriculture.

Meanwhile, Worrilow, who essentially serves as a middleman between farms, meat processors and restaurants, also said the meat came from a completely legal plant in Illinois. And even though he didn't know the name of that plant, Worrilow said he was confident that the meat was inspected by federal regulators.

So where's this supposed African lion farm in Illinois?

Well, here's one clue: When the meat arrived at Il Vinaio on Tuesday evening, Selogie said it came in packaging with the name "Czimer's Game & Sea Foods."

Czimer isn't a free-range farm. It's a butcher shop located just outside of Chicago in Homer Glen, Ill.

Lions, ligers and bears ...
Czimer's website advertises standard wild game: pheasants, quail, ducks, venison, buffalo and so on. But then, sprinkled through the product list, some wilder offerings pop up. Like llama leg roasts. Or camel cutlets.

And African lion meat. You can snag it in shoulder roast, steak, tenderloin or burger form -- or, for a bargain, try the ribs at $10 a pound.

So where does Richard Czimer, the company's owner, get these lions?

The meat is the byproduct of a skinning operation owned by another man, Czimer said in an interview with CNNMoney.com. He declined to name that gentleman.

"This man buys and sells animals for the skin, and when I need something and he has ability to get it, I will bargain for the meat. It's a byproduct," he said.

And where does that mystery man get the lions? "I wouldn't have any idea," said Czimer, who operates a small retail store in addition to his wholesale business. "He has his sources, and I do not infringe on his business, just as he does not infringe on mine."

He's willing to take a hands-off approach: "Do you question where chickens come from when you go to Brown's Chicken or Boston Market?" he asked.

Czimer's exotic-meat dealings have landed him in hot water before. Back in 2003, Chicago newspapers covered his conviction and six-month prison sentence for selling meat from federally protected tigers and leopards. Czimer admitted to purchasing the carcasses of 16 tigers, four lions, two mountain lions and one liger -- a tiger-lion hybrid -- which were skinned, butchered and sold as "lion meat," for a profit of more than $38,000.

His supply chain may be murky, but like the Arizona restaurateur and the meat salesman, he expressed total certainty that his lion meat is USDA-approved and thoroughly inspected by regulators before it reaches his processing plant.

But here's a twist: The USDA says it doesn't inspect lions bred for meat. That's the job of the Food and Drug Administration.

Is it legal to eat lions? Yes, according to the FDA's communications team. The African lion isn't currently a federally protected endangered species and it qualifies as a game meat, FDA spokesman Michael Herndon said in an e-mail.

While the African lion is not considered endangered by U.S. regulators, it is classified as "threatened" by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, an international protection agreement.

As for Czimer, his shop is officially registered with the FDA and has been inspected by state regulators, Heardon said.

Meanwhile, back in Arizona, Selogie is taking the protests in stride. He plans to have bins of ice water outside for picketers who brave Arizona's 100-degree heat to protest as he serves up the burgers on Wednesday and Thursday night.

"I do feel bad that people are so concerned about this. But for most people, this is the king of the jungle and that's the only reason they can give me for their concern," he said. "We're not doing anything to endanger the species."

Place your orders HERE.

This is a humorous read on the subject:
http://www.care2.com/news/memb...+(Care2+News+Network)

As long as it's not canned.

I eat most anything including Rocky Mountain oysters (bull nuts) and caterpillars (Mopane worms). Moose, bear, crocodile, alligator, wart hog, squirrel, eel, rattlesnake, sea urchin, yep, all those.

I’ve eaten in enough Korean and Chinese restaurants in my life that I feel pretty comfortable saying that I’ve likely eaten dog.

But for some reason the thought of eating any kind of cat just leaves me cold.

I remember back in the 70's there was a restraurant in New Orleans that served lion among other exotic meats. T Pateries (sp) Wild Game room. The walls were covered with mounts. As I recall when I ate there I had a "game skillet" which had bear, mule deer, elk, whitetail, and mixed wildgame sausage. By the way Lion is very good be it African or NA Mt Lion.

Cougar, or mountain lion, is one of the best tasting game animals out there. So why not lion? I'm surprised by pen raised lion in the US. Zoo surplus for their stock?

Dave

You guys need to go to Fuddruckers. I went in last week to get an ostrich burger. I was a bit sad to find that there is a shortage of ostrich meat and they were out, but the good news is they expanded their wild game meats so I got an elk burger instead. They have some great food and you can get a burger made from beef, elk, bison, wild boar, or ostrich.

I guess these green weenies think that while it is OK to raise a cow for the purpose of rendering burger but a lion is simply above all that and should be allowed to grow old and die only to be buried or left out for scavengers to eat. Why do they have to place some animals arbitrarily above others?

Excuse me now because I have some porpoise steaks grilling and want to make sure they are not getting over-cooked.I like my dolphin like my bald eagle, just a bit rare.

I've eaten meat from the mountain lion, African lion and bobcats I've killed and I agree with nopride2. Cat meat is good to eat. In fact, I liked cat a lot more than my desert bighorn. It's 1,000 times better than javelina or bear.

Bill Quimby

So how come you can't get eland steaks, medallion of gemsbok, backstrap of wildebeast or (my favorite) springbok ribs????????

Of course you know where "downed cows", those found dead in the pasture, and those that might have Mad-Cow disease go, right? Just recycle that abnormal protein thru a lion or a tiger, and viola! An exotic entre' rather than a wasted carcase!

You think maybe these 'Lion Burgers' are made of a kind of Domestic Lion....like a friggn cat. Sorry couldn't help it.

Reminds me of the movie "The Freshman" with Brando and Broderick. Big money people buying tickets thinking that they are getting a chance to eat an endangered species. Turns out the animals are let go and the people are eating chicken. I wonder if Lion tastes like chicken? And no I'm not saying they are'nt serving Lion, just reminds me of the movie.

quote:

Originally posted by eyedoc:
I guess these green weenies think that while it is OK to raise a cow for the purpose of rendering burger but a lion is simply above all that and should be allowed to grow old and die only to be buried or left out for scavengers to eat. Why do they have to place some animals arbitrarily above others?

It's a mental disorder called N.A.S. Noble Animal Syndrome. There is also a similar affliction called C.A.S. Cute Animal Syndrome.

Kinda like how some greenies make a big deal about dolphin getting caught in tuna nets. How the dolphins suffocate and die because they are unable to breathe.

Of course I've always wondered why the tuna themselves get so little attention, seeing as how they're the ones being caught by the ton - hauled out of the water where they suffucate - and gutted alive...

N.A.S. is also prolific with sportsmen as well.

Meat is meat. Eat what you want. I am still trying to rap my head around a "free range lion" in Illinois. Somehow that statement in and of itself makes the whole thing suspect.

quote:

Originally posted by wildfowl:
This is a humorous read on the subject:
http://www.care2.com/news/memb...+(Care2+News+Network)

I just wonder. Where do these hypocrites think the meat they eat every day comes from?

Oh yea, I forgot.

It comes from the "supermarket where no animals are harmed"

The locals ate every bit of the cattle-killing, problem lion I killed in Namibia, north of Etosha.

Not for my plate, however! Nothing stinks like a lion being butchered.

Truly disgusting.

I'm pretty sure it's the meat in the lion's belly and digestive tract that generates the stench.

You sure it wasn't a free-range TITANIUM lion burger?

There are certain buzz-words that advertisers use to supposedly make it impossible for us not to buy their product. "Titanium" and "Free Range" are two. "Free-Range" irritates me most.

Everything related to a chicken/egg used to be free-range in my grand-mothers era. That went out of favor. Now "free range" is a way I guess of making an $6 burger sound like a $21 burger; or add a few bucks to the cost of eggs.

Free-range/Illinois/Lion is an oxymoron if I ever heard one.

I have known lots of people who hunted and ate rabbits. I can't think of anyone I ever knew who ate a cat - small or large. I guess it's just me and my preferences -and the people I associated with. (I did read that the lions were raised on some kind of "farm" which I suppose is better -although I don't know how much "better" -the whole thing just disgusts me however it was - and we have people complaining about "mystery meat" on airplane flights? The airlines would love these customers!

I personally don't much care where the lion meat came from but I will tell you that cats are another tasty animal right next to the mash potatoes. Lion, leopard and cougar are all fine and as Bill Quimby said far better than some other game meat.

Mark