Cat meat menu unleashes Italian outrage

telegraph.co.uk ^ | Feb. 16, 2010 | Nick Squires

[Free ThinkerNY]

Beppe Bigazzi, a food expert on La Prova del Cuoco (The Cooks' Challenge), was suspended indefinitely after extolling the delights of "tender, white cat meat" on a national television channel.

Mr Bigazzi, 77, recommended that the best way to prepare a cat was to leave it under running water for three days in order to tenderise the meat and then cook it in a stew.

The suggestion enraged animal rights groups, with the Italian Animal Protection Agency calling for him to be sacked.

"Anyone who goes on television to promote the taste of cat meat is guilty of instigating viewers to commit an act of cruelty to animals, a crime punishable by up to 18 months in prison." Mr Bigazzi claimed on the programme that eating cats was a long-held tradition in Valdarno, a town near Florence.

"Leave it for three days under a stream or running water and you end up with a delight, I've eaten its delicious white meat many times," he said.

Mr Bigazzi later claimed that he had seen people eat cats in Tuscany in the 1930s and 1940s, during wartime food shortages, but that he was not recommending that cat should still be eaten. "I was just talking about an old tradition," he said.

Francesca Martini, a health minister, condemned the remarks as "offensive to the growing number of people who care about the way we treat animals."

[Mengerian]

Sad, but if there are too many wild / feral cats, incapable of domestication, why not eat them?

[The KG9 Kid]

This guy proposes eating cat meat in Italy? With their cuisine?

No kidding he oughtta be worried about his safety.

[Touch Not the Cat]

.
Roof

Rabbit
.

[SirJohnBarleycorn]

best way to prepare a cat was to leave it under running water for three days in order to tenderise the meat

That is so wrong!

(everyone knows cats are best when fried.)

[Question Liberal Authority]

It’s much more humane to have the ASPCA gas them and throw their bodies in a dumpster.

[oyez]

Right! The other white meat.

[andy58-in-nh]

Trying to avoid the obvious joke...

[GraceG]

As long as it is cooked thoroughly to kill any possible parasites and other bugs, and it is being done to decrease the numbers of an overpopulation of cats, then I say Meowww!!

I hear cat is popular on Midgrat.

[ConservativeMind]

I would have no problems trying cat meat.

I wonder if it tastes like chicken.

[digger48]

[PeteB570]

Cat, I guess, should be prepared similar to squirrel or rabbit.

[ConservativeMind]

Exactly! Why is it only okay for liberals to murder animals?

[digger48]

I guess I timed my post well. LOL

[ArrogantBustard]

Trying to avoid the obvious joke...

ROFL!!!!

[ArrogantBustard]

I wonder if it tastes like chicken.

I hear tell it's kinda fishy ...

[IamConservative]

Trying to avoid the obvious joke...

:) Hard when it is handing right out there over the plate..

[SC DOC]

Cat in the Kettle

[Waverunner]

Meow - Cat in the black has little fat

[chemicalman]

Cat in the Kettle