Florida restaurant may keep lion meat on menu

[TheBlackCatCrossing]

TAMPA - Bomb threats, fistfights and TV news vans outside. It's just another day for a taco joint serving tacos made with real lion meat.

“We're getting all kinds of threats over it,” said Ryan Gougeon, owner of Taco Fusion on Bay to Bay Boulevard in Tampa that put lion meat on their taco menu this week. Controversy soon erupted and social media exploded with criticism that anyone would serve lion meat.

“Now we're getting bomb threats, and everything else. Some guy just called and said he'd kidnap me and grind me up for a taco. There are so many coming in we aren't counting.”

Besides serving the standard chicken tacos and a giant nacho platter, the Taco Fusion restaurant specializes in all sorts of exotic meats: Gator, elk, bear, zebra and kangaroo. The lion meat taco is priced at $35 apiece, and has been selling well.

The lion meat is authentic, Gougeon said, and comes from a farm that raises the animals for meat. Such a practice is legal in the United States because lions are only considered threatened, and not endangered.

Besides the TV news crews outside, a steady stream of characters are coming in the store, Gougeon said.

“My general manager was just attacked. A guy came in, took a swing at him and missed,” he said. “They had a brief wrestling match, but the guy ran for it. That was two hours ago. Some other guy just called saying he's on the way in now to fight us.”

Tampa police are now investigating a number of death threats the managers said they received, according to a police spokeswoman.

For a time, Taco Fusion took down its Facebook page that had hundreds of angry postings, and early today there was some indication they would take lion meat off the menu.

Now, however, serving lion meat is becoming a point of pride.

“The fact that they're trying to bully us now just eggs us on to keep carrying it,” Gougeon said. “They want to restrict our freedom of choice. It's still 100 percent legal. So maybe we keep serving it.”

rmullins@tampatrib.com

Thoughts anyone?

[Regulus]

Who would spend $35 on a taco?

[AdAstrα]

Horrible. That's all I have to say.

[OuRaion]

Meat is meat, if it's legal, let them sell it.
I wouldn't eat it, but you can't stop others from eating it.

[Regulus]

Well, I'm sure lion meat is probably a lot less fatty than beef. It might actually taste pretty good. I mean, at first I thought bison wouldn't be that good, but I actually prefer it over regular beef any day of the week.

But, on the flip side, lion's aren't exactly hunted for their meat, and I'm sure there's a reason for that.

[quote]
"As a country, and hell, maybe as a planet, our food processing systems are not pretty, only efficient. They are not politically correct, and certainly need work. But if you are crying out in the name of diversity, in the name of freedom, in the name of rescuing a Lion, then why don’t you cry out for Cows? Who decides which animals are worthy? If the argument is that a Lion is “Majestic” so you shouldn’t breed them for meat consumption- then what is the lesson here That only the majestic pretty girls get treated well and the ugly ones go to the slaughter pen? How pompous and idiotic does that sound?"[/quote]

Quite frankly, I have to agree. Don't get me wrong, I like animals, especially lions, but that doesn't mean I can't like them in my mouth as well.

Still doesn't mean I'd pay that much for one taco, though. In fact, this whole thing seems like a marketing scam to me.

[UncoordinatedPisces]

I'd have to disagree with Regulus here...even though I've eaten my far share of exotic meats (ostrich being the most exotic)...I just don't think I could sit there and eat lion meat. I think in the end, its personal preference to whether you'd eat it or not. Personally, I think its wrong that lions are being raised to be killed and eaten. Saying that, so are cows, sheep and chickens...so idek to be honest.

[DGFone]

As long as the lions aren't being poached for food, it's what people want. Sure, I won't want to eat lion meat (too big of a TLK fan to stomach such a thing ), but that isn't to say that others, who know what their doing and are willing, shouldn't be forced against it.

Plus, considering the poaching problem, at worst case, these exotic animal farms might even end up being the last salvation before extinction.

[Regulus]

[quote="DGFone"]Plus, considering the poaching problem, at worst case, these exotic animal farms might even end up being the last salvation before extinction.[/quote]

Yeah, I thought of that.

[FlipMode]

[quote]“Now we're getting bomb threats, and everything else. Some guy just called and said he'd kidnap me and grind me up for a taco. There are so many coming in we aren't counting.”[/quote]

So take it off the menu?
I don't really mind to be honest, it's just food. I eat cows, chickens etc so unless I went completely vegan I couldn't really have a problem with it. If its making them money and they know what they are doing then sure but it sounds like more trouble than its probably worth...

[TheLionPrince]

[quote="Time Newsfeed"]A Tampa, Fla. restaurant has pulled lion-meat tacos off its menu after receiving significant backlash online and from animal activists. Taco Fusion, which recently opened its doors this year, sold the specially-made taco for $35.[/quote]

Well, that case is settled. But I'll like to make one statement:


[quote]“Now we're getting bomb threats, and everything else. Some guy just called and said he'd kidnap me and grind me up for a taco. There are so many coming in we aren't counting.”[/quote]

It's one thing to protest against something you don't like on the menu, but to go as far as making bomb threats and threatening to kidnap people is just wrong.

Sure, I don't lions being raised to be killed and eaten, but I can't impose my will over others. Vegetarians are against cow and chicken farms using brutal practices to sell their meat, but they can't close them because there's still a market for their products. But from what I'm reading, the animal farms were doing it legally. So, let the lion farms do what they do, though it isn't a problem now in this scenario.