Fur Flies Over Squirrel Meat Sales

Hugh Pickens writes "BBC reports that supermarket owner Andrew Thornton in North London is selling squirrel meat as a sustainable way of feeding people and predicts that more people will eat 'the other, other white meat' in the future. 'I think it's lovely. It's a bit like rabbit. I think there will be a lot of fuss about this now, but in a few years it will become accepted practice that we eat squirrels,' says Thornton owner of a Budgens supermarket in Crouch End where most of the 2004 British horror comedy Shaun of the Dead was filmed. Thorton adds that squirrel meat is more sustainable than beef. 'It takes about 15 tonnes of grain to produce one tonne of beef, which is not sustainable.' But not everyone is happy as animal welfare group Viva accuses Budgens of profiting from a wildlife massacre. 'If this store is attempting to stand out from the crowd by selling squirrel, the only message they are giving out is that they are happy to have the blood of a beautiful wild animal on their hands for the sake of a few quid,' says Viva founder and director, Juliet Gellatley. 'Squirrels will be culled anyway,' responds Thorton. 'You have two choices. Either you dispose of them or you eat them.'"

Comments

That makes a lot of sense

[WaroDaBeast]

Since so much squirrel meat ends up in the trash anyway — people who are looking for squirrels usually only want the fur —, why not? I wonder what jugged squirrel tastes like compared to jugged rabbit...

Re:That makes a lot of sense

[RockDoctor]

"That makes a lot of sense"

In an American context maybe, but the article wasn't about America, it's about Britain, where the "sport" of "hunting" is almost completely non-existent. Excluding fishing, the active population of "hunters" is probably only a few tenths of a percent.

But having watched the article, I thoughts - "So what?". Both sides presented in the discussion are correct to a degree from their own perspectives : the animal welfare people are worried about this encouraging the "hunting/ shooting/ torturing" fraternity (and I'm sure that it will ; the pest control people don't see any significant difference between a squirrel and a bunny rabbit.

Rabbit stew - haven't had it for years, you can't get the bunnies unless you want to breed, grow, slaughter, skin and gut them yourself. And having done that in the past, I'm not particularly keen on the hassles of breeding and growing the bloody animals.
Squirrels, which haven't gone through hundreds or thousands of generations of selective breeding for docility and easy handling : nope, severely don't need that hassle.
And do I trust a pest-control company to not (accidentally) slip the occasional poisoned squirrel or bunny into the food chain - of course I don't.

It's a publicity stunt ; and quite a successful one, I'll grant.

Re:That makes a lot of sense

[WaroDaBeast]

Oh, I just happened to have seen a report about squirrel fur being used for stuff like coats, and that was in Europe — can't remember which country though. I was simply stating that instead of dumping stuff into the trashcan, why not use it? But yeah, I wouldn't advocate killing squirrels on a massive scale since I have no idea about what their population is and how it would impact the whole ecosystem if people actually started hunting 'em like crazy.

About this article being a publicity stunt... Well... this is Slashdot.

I was talking about civet, by the way. It's not hard to find rabbit meat in Réunion, and my mother cooks it like no one else does.

Re:That makes a lot of sense

[RockDoctor]

Oh, I just happened to have seen a report about squirrel fur being used for stuff like coats, and that was in Europe

Ah, coincidence then. Serendipity, as the Sri Lankans get accused of.

I can't say that I've seen squirrel fur specifically in Britain or Europe, though I did see it used for chapkas (round fur hats) on sale in Siberia. Nothing against that if the animals are being culled for some reasonable reason and the fur (and for that matter, meat) would otherwise go to waste. What you consider a "reasonable reason" is another question. A person's fancy? A forestry company's profit margin? A disease-control effort?

There is a complicating factor in Britain (and to a lesser extent in mainland Europe) : around 150 years ago someone(s) introduced American "Grey" squirrels to the island and to the continent, and they're steadily displacing the native "Red" squirrels through a combination of a slight breeding and food-range advantage plus an immunity (in the Greys) to an introduced virus. That opens up whole channels of complicated issues, which I'm sure you'd be familiar with if I'm correct in understanding that you're on Reunion.

Mmmmm, rabbit stew, mmmm. Going to have to get some bunny! Got your mum's recipe? Because I'm going to be visiting my Aged Parents soon, and Mum likes her bunny dishes too.