epepke

I guess you've never been in a rodeo ring with a bull.

cajela

Yummy. It's a very lean red meat - closest comparison is venison. Does not taste like chicken

Yalla is IMO generally correct, though maybe somewhat overstating the durability of the roo. We've been having a very severe drought and the roos have definitely been suffering. They are definitely better at coping with it the European animals, but there are limits. NSW around Canberra has been pretty dire; I've seen some extremely emaciated roos in the national parks in the last year or two, and plenty of dead ones. Drought also leads to increased roadkill, of couse, as the roos come closer to town to look for water & grass. When the dams on the properties are totally empty, there's not much choice...

Where are you, Yalla? And where do you get the roo salami? I have no trouble buying meat here, and sausages & prosciutto, but I've never seen a roo salami.

For info for the furriners - we can eat roo and emu and croc, but I think all other native animals & birds are protected. No koalas, wombats or platypuses. You can buy possum meat, but it's imported from NZ where they are a pest. (maybe also Tassie?)

premjan

Maybe it is only the Indian cows then (the bulls are rarer, perhaps they are taken to work in fields or killed for veal?). Though I was chased once by one. But they are so accustomed to people they usually ignore them (sometimes by sitting in the road).

Since crocs are carnivores would their meat be very good?

Starshark

Oh, yeah. I don't mind eating crocs since they're farmed, and they eat humans now and again, so I can write that off as quid pro quo... Though I admit that's a dubious argument at best, ethically speaking.

premjan

But does croc meat taste very good?

Hnefi

The problem with that argument is that it is based on what is experienced by the humans, not the animals. Why would the deer care about who or what inflicted its suffering? The deer, like most creatures, only cares about the amount of suffering, not the source. If it had a choice between going through severe suffering caused by nature and light suffering caused by man (and it had full realization of what the choices would entail), it would most certainly choose the suffering caused by man (example - walk through electric fence to escape vicious predator). The point, then, is that it is nonsensical to make the premise about the source of the suffering or the experiences of the individual causing the suffering. The focus must always be on what can reasonably be concieved as better for the "victim".

The AntiChris

I don't think the argument is that non-human inflicted suffering is of no concern - it just not a moral concern.

Chris

Starshark

Oh, yeah! Actually, I've only had croc jerky, but it was quite something.

yalla

I'm in S.A. on the Murray. For bulk roo meat for human consumption the only place I know of is the Adelaide Central Market. Wintulich market a roo mettwurst called ''Stikaroo'' which is ok. But the place in the market has a complete range of products at a good price and quality.
Perhaps I am a bit enamoured at the survival skills of our native animals., I too have seen them in strife and have had to mercy kill on occasion.

Here recently a scientist has been studying wombats and found that 50-80% of them have died in the last few years. That is an estimated 30000+ deaths in the region.
He attributed the cause to the drought. And he is a REAL expert.
But a friend of mine whose wombats are spoiled by having irrigated lucerne at their disposal noticed casualties also so drought was not the reason.Same at our place.
It took 3 of us months of lobbying before anything was done about this. After all 50% plus is abnormal and critical. CAN I SHOUT PLEASE? BLOODY HELL THIS IS CRITICAL WHAT IS GOING ON HERE? Nothing much said the govt.
Finally the scientist, with help from 2 Adelaide Zoo vets, admitted that the major cause of the deaths was sarcophic mange...not drought.
But still no action.
There is a real reluctance and apathy even at University and govt. dept. level to "waste'' time, effort and , heaven forbid, money on non commercial fauna and flora.

I am marginally involved in a local fauna care and rescue group and am avoiding deeper involvement because I don't want to hit the brick walls the group encounters whenever they have to relate to govt. depts. [inc. Environment].

The gap between the P.R. statements of govt. depts. and the reality of day to day performance is enormous when it comes to anything environmental. I'm deeply involved in this at a quasi-govt. level and the combination of hypocrisy [the leader of a certain environmental action group openly states elsewhere that his aim is to block action] apathy, bureacratic waste etc is mind boggling. I'm normally a cynic but I'm currently being driven to despair by what I see.

Look I know this is off topic but I presume Veganism is concerned about the welfare of animals so maybe we can pursue my whinge rationalising that it's about animal welfare.
Perhaps privately.

Jackalope

Hell, he's never tried ranching longhorns. Some of the ranchers here in northern California got an object lesson on why most Texas rancher drive big-ass trucks. The bulls don't respect the japanese compact trucks, they're not big enough. One of the ranchers had his small truck totally destroyed by one of his new longhorn bulls. The bull decided the truck wasn' that much bigger than he was...

And everyone around was stunned, but me. Because I spent some time with my uncle who used to ranch longhorns in Texas. He'd herd them with his giantic truck or one of the tractors. And even so, the herd bull was extremely agressive about letting us near his cows. My uncle and aunt also said that occasionally the cattle would stomp a cougar to death that was stupid enough to try and steal one of the calves.

No no, dairy cattle are docile. Beef cattle in general are not. Longhorns are just especially bad. They're nearly as bad as buffalo. In Montanna there are signs up for the stupid tourists warning them to not pet the buffalo. As one of my friends put it, "So you tried to pet the buffalo and now you have 14 broken ribs and 3 broken legs? You'll be fine once we figure out who that other leg belongs to."