whyinthehell

To “honor” South Africa as host of the 2010 World Cup, an Arizona restaurant has decided to offer their customers the option to order lion burgers.

Look tasty?

“We thought that since the World Cup was in Africa …that the lion burger might be interesting for some of our more adventurous customers.”

The restaurant owner also said that, although many people were outraged at the idea of serving up the majestic (and endangered) animals in burgers, some were less upset when he explained that meat comes form lions raised on a farm in Illinois.

Despite the fact that they’re not killing the lions in the wild, this brings up a whole new issue. Ecorazzi makes a good point:

“It’s difficult to determine what the real story is here—that a restaurant is serving King of the Jungle burgers or that there is a farm in Illinois that raises the big cats for human consumption. No matter, the decision to serve meat from a threatened species as a tribute to an international soccer—or football, depending on your locale—event is mind-boggling.”

More troubling is the fact that, according to the Chicago Tribune, no one can seem to find the farm.

A farmed tiger being smuggled from Thailand

CNN has reported that the meat actually came from a butcher shop whose owner has been fined and jailed for selling lion meat - which (sadly) is legal - that actually proved to be meat form critically endangered tigers, which is most definitely not legal under any circumstances.