Posted on 05/03/2018 10:57:12 AM PDT by Red Badger
As Italy struggles to deal with burgeoning populations of an introduced giant rodent, a mayor has come up with a novel solution – eat them.
Coypu were introduced to Italy a century ago from their native South America to be farmed for their fur.
But many escaped or were deliberately released after wearing fur fell out of fashion and the species is now thriving.
They have fared particularly well in the flatlands of the Po valley in northern Italy, where farmers complain that they devour crops and destroy levees and embankments by digging burrows.
Michele Marchi, the mayor of the town of Gerre de’ Caprioli, has suggested that numbers could be reduced if only Italians can develop a taste for coypu meat. He has tried it and says it tastes a bit like rabbit.
His proposal, launched on his Facebook page, has caused a lively social media debate, with some people in favour of the idea and others revolted by the prospect of tucking it what looks like a cross-between a beaver and a large rat.
“The debate about coypu has become bonkers, without coming to any resolution of the problem,” the 31-year-old mayor wrote.
“Here’s my idea – let’s start eating them in restaurants and at village food festivals.”
However unpalatable the idea, he insisted that he was not joking and said there were regions of Italy that were already warming to the idea of tucking into roast, broiled or braised coypu.
“I’m totally serious. It’s true that there is a sense of revulsion towards the coypu but you just have to go into a pig farm to put it into context – everybody loves to eat prosciutto. We should at least start to discuss the idea.”
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
That’s ridiculous!
At those prices there shouldn’t be a single nutria left in Louisiana!...........
Spaghetti and ratballs!
Cool!
No! put a bounty on them and people will start raising them as a cash crop.
Put out that they are an endangered specie and therefore protected by law. However mention in the article that they taste like chicken. there will be none left within weeks.
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