Voices

Zoo animals on menu in bad taste

By Freddie Cheah (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-05-28 07:51

The Chinese people have a reputation of being able to eat anything - whether it walks, crawls or slithers. The only thing they won't eat with four legs are tables, and the only thing that flies they won't eat are airplanes, or so says an old Chinese saying.

And when you consider Beijing's Wangfujing "snack" street, for example, you'd say the Chinese deserve that ugly reputation. That's the street where you can get scorpions or silk worms on a stick, seahorses on skewers, grilled snakes, lizard legs and practically anything you can think of.

But that reputation never bothered me. After all, people in some countries eat things that others would consider bizarre.

When I was living in Sydney, one of my favorite TV programs was Bizarre Foods hosted by the American Andrew Zimmern who took viewers around the world, sampling foods that would seem strange to most Americans, and by extension, the rest of the "civilized" world.

Among the strange foods he'd eaten on camera were worm pretzels, fermented whale blubber, maggot pupae, teriyaki cockroaches and wild boar testicles - and these were not in any "strange and exotic" Asian country but in the United States in places such as New York, Minnesota and Alaska.

While I would shy away from most things Zimmern would try, I would not try to stop anyone else from eating them, provided they are not poisonous or would give long-term health problems.

But recent stories in Beijing's media about the city's zoo and the food its restaurant serves have made me change my view about that Chinese reputation.

Apparently, Beijing Zoo is cooking exotic animals and has begun serving them at its restaurant, backed by zoo officials. On the menu are 20 animals, including crocodile, kangaroo, antelope and hippo, and these can be served steamed, braised or roasted.

Compared with the types of food served on Wangfujing or eaten by Zimmern, the zoo's menu seems quite harmless. Kangaroo and crocodile meat, for example, are available in Australia and indeed, I've eaten both. And I'm sure antelope and hippo would be fairly common in many parts of the world.

But what I object to is the fact that a zoo is cooking and serving the meat of animals that it, by its very nature, is meant to be helping to preserve.

Most modern zoos undertake to provide environments that aim to raise awareness and knowledge of animals and their habitats.

Zoos are places where children are able to see various animals living in areas designed to resemble, as much as possible, their natural habitats.

So it's distasteful to know that at Beijing Zoo, the troop of kangaroos munching grass, the float of crocodiles basking or the bloat of hippos half-submerged in a pond can then appear on the menu of the zoo's restaurant.

Yes, I know zoo authorities have said the meat served in the restaurant is safe, edible and comes from animals reared on farms, and not from the zoo. Officials have been quoted as saying the restaurant has been approved by the Beijing municipal bureau of landscape and forestry. Moreover, the Beijing Wildlife Conservation Association's Vice-president, Wang Zengnian, has said it's "perfectly legal" to serve exotic animals as long as they are approved by authorities.

"People have a misunderstanding about wildlife protection," Wang was reported to have said. "Serving exotic animals in restaurants is legal."

But that statement misses the point, and being legal doesn't make it right. Indeed, in my book, it's wrong - no matter which way you look at it.

Zoos are places where you'd introduce your children to animals - and hope they will come to admire and love all animals. And if they could, they would want to take some of them home as pets.

A few years ago, we took our daughter to Bangkok where she fell in love with elephants after feeding a couple of calves. And even today, she thinks it would be great to have an elephant as a pet - despite the mammoth-sized appetite and droppings. Now try suggesting she eat an elephant steak.

How bizarre would it be to watch animals gamboling nearby, and then call the waiter to order its sibling as an entre or main course.

Worse, visit the kangaroo enclosure to see a cute joey climbing back into its mother's pouch - and then head to the restaurant and ask your children whether they want to eat kangaroo steak.

It made me wonder if the zoo has a hidden agenda, and that this is the thin edge of the wedge. Perhaps the zoo thinks that if the public accepts this without blinking an eyelid, it can then expand the menu and at, say, the monkey enclosure, put up a sign that says: "If you enjoy looking at these animals climb and swing through the trees, why not taste them? Ring our restaurant for a booking."

Or perhaps a booth at Wangfujing Street will be set up, advertising the fact that if you've enjoyed scorpion on a stick, come to Beijing Zoo to try crocodile croquettes.

You might cringe watching Zimmern dig into jellied eel or tuna sperm, and may wonder what they might taste like. But what the zoo has done is really in bad taste.