Posted on 07/19/2006 10:59:44 AM PDT by ZULU
Ape Meat Sold in U.S., European Black Markets
Sara Goudarzi
for National Geographic News
July 18, 2006
Meat from chimpanzees, gorillas, and other wild African animals is popping up in illegal markets in the United States and Europe, a new investigation reveals. "Bush meat" consumption is widespread in western and central Africa (Africa map). There, the poor have traditionally trapped wild animals as a form of subsistence hunting to help feed their families and villages.
However, wild animals such as primates have been shot in such large numbers that conservationists have declared bush-meat hunting a crisis. Adding to the demand, wild animal meat is making its way from small villages into African cities, where some diners consider it a delicacy.
Now bush meat is going overseas to Western cities. Justin Brashares, a professor of wildlife ecology at the University of California, Berkeley, and a team of volunteers recently said it found the illegal meat in markets in Paris, Brussels, London, New York City, Montreal, Toronto, and Los Angeles. The team documented 27 instances of gorilla or chimpanzee parts being sold, though it never found a complete carcass.
Carry-On Meals
"Most illegal meat is carried in suitcases and also is shipped in parcels and large containers," Brashares said.
Brashares first learned of markets that trade bush meat through a chance meeting with a Ghanaian living in New York City a couple of years back. "In the U.S. a lot of it comes through JFK and Miami airports," he added. "Inspectors actively search for these shipments and use sniffer dogs. But they tell me they can't begin to keep up with the volume coming in and estimate they catch about one percent of the total coming into the country."
Many officials at Africa's airports are aware of the illegal cargo but choose to look the other way and allow the airports of the importing countries to deal with the issue, says Karl Ammann, a bush-meat activist and wildlife photographer.
I have checked in on flights to Europe in central African capitals," Ammann said. "A lot of local passengers check in openly with [coolers]. Airlines—I talked to Swissair staff at the time—are terrified to confront passengers and risk huge scenes at the airport." Meat for the Elite
Bush meat is a vital part of the livelihoods of many rural Africans. But for Western countries that are not suffering from food shortages, it has become a luxury food item, like caviar or shark meat. The biggest Western consumers come from the middle and upper classes and have found easy ways to access bush meat, according to Ammann.
"It is pretty openly for sale, and when checking out the buyers, it is clear that it is not the poor but often the wives of politicians and policymakers," he said.
The University of California's Brashares believes it's reasonable to assume that African bush meat sold in North America and Europe is a luxury good. But he found out that, for many, it's just a matter getting some home cooking.
"My sense from talking with the volunteers who use these markets and know them pretty well is that most buyers are expats from Africa who cook the meat in their house," he said. "I'm told some of it is going to restaurants, but I can only guess as to how much." The most commonly sold bush meat found in Brashares' investigation was from small antelopes known as duikers, but meat from various rodents, reptiles, and birds was also discovered.
Risky Business
Many experts warn that illegally imported bush meat could be a vector for the introduction of diseases. Some think this has already happened. "The belief is that the foot-and-mouth outbreak [in 2001] in the U.K.—costing the country billions of pounds—originated with African bush meat," Ammann, the activist, said. "In Gabon there have been several outbreaks of Ebola, all associated with villagers eating primates."
Brashares agrees that, with the large amount of meat that makes it into the West and the relatively unsanitary conditions of the markets, many zoonotic diseases—infectious diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans—arrive with African bush meat every day.
Shipped by the Ton
Most experts agree that the total amount of bush meat imported into the West is high. But precise estimates are hard to come by.
"A very small part of the total sold makes its way overseas, but considering that millions of tons of bush meat are sold in Africa each year, a 'very small part' can still mean several hundred tons each year arriving on our shores," Brashares said.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), an international agreement among governments, works to ensure that international trade of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. Under CITES laws, cross-border trade of bush meat is illegal.
"I don't believe there are laws against eating bush meat in the U.S. It is illegal to bring it into the country but not to eat it," Brashares said. Free Email News Updates
Seriously, I believe AIDS may have originated from eating monkey or ape meat or otherwise unappetising use thereof.
Great green globs of greasy grimy gopher guts!
What enviro-dorks will never understand...
You can't kill gorillas for food and they are becoming extinct....you can kill cows for food, and there are billions of them in the world.....
I once did a report on the CITES Treaty for a major radio network back in the early 80s. I wonder if CITES really does any good at all? But then, you can't catch all of the poachers, can you?
I hope CITES thwarts some of them. But I have this worry inside me that perhaps CITES is nothing more than a paper tiger(no pun intended) that is of very little use.
Thoughts?
What about those little I-94 cards one must fill out on the airplane, with a checkbox which asks about any raw meats or agricultural products in your luggage?
>>You can't kill gorillas for food and they are becoming extinct....you can kill cows for food, and there are billions of them in the world.....<<
WOW!
That is profound and sooooo true!
Bush meat is a vital part of the livelihoods of many rural Africans. But for Western countries that are not suffering from food shortages, it has become a luxury food item, like caviar or shark meat. The biggest Western consumers come from the middle and upper classes and have found easy ways to access bush meat, according to Ammann."It is pretty openly for sale, and when checking out the buyers, it is clear that it is not the poor but often the wives of politicians and policymakers," he said.
So let's have the names of these politicians who are eating primates.
I believe that Aids started with human males having sex with infected primates. There--I said it!
I assume that is a joke?
susie
Jeeze. I don't believe even Tarzan ate ape meat in any of Burrough's 26 books featuring John Clayton.
"eating bush meat"
don't you hate it when things are taken out of context?
It could be that, OR it could be the butchering process. Apparently the green monkey is eaten in that part of the world, and if you've ever butchered something you know it's a bloody affair. If you also cut yourself, or have an opening in the skin, I believe you could contract it that way.
Of course, who really knows? ;)
susie
Between AIDS and "mad-cow" like effects (what parts are being eaten, certainly there have been tales of monkey brains as a delicacy before), this cannot be good.
On top of that, all meat sold in the US must meat USDA inspection AND we even have a moral clause in our law, horsemeat can be raised for export but not sold for human consumption in America.
Wow! I forgot that song from my childhood, now it is stuck in my head.
Zulu, your initial post on this thread, brought back to mind one of my favorite jokes, which I have posted a couple of times to freepers before on threads with this similar topic, but it's one of my favorite jokes, and I tell it proudly whenever I am in the vicinity of one or more "tree- huggers". I hope you like it:
A scruffy, unshaven, underfed , backwoods looking individual is standing at the defense table with his public defender in a Florida court of of law, waiting for the judge to enter to begin the trial
for which he is charged and pleading guilty with killing a Florida panther. Seated in the front row of the courtroom are his equally shabbily dressed and undernourished wife, and their four small children. All talking suddenly stops and everyone rises as the bailiff announces to the courtroom the arrival of the judge who is to preside over the trial. The judge tells the courtroom to be seated as he sits and begins the trial by reading the charges of the defendant to the now totally quiet court.
The judge begins;" Sir you are in this court of law today charged with the criminal offense of killing a Florida panther, which is a felony in this great state. I have carefully reviewed your past criminal history, of which you have none, and have also found out that the small monthly checks that you do receive for being physically handicaped, and no longer able to to be gainfully employed, is barely enough to sustain you and your family in the simple backwoods lifestyle that you have by nessesity have had to endure for the past decade.
"Since this is your first ever offense, I am not going to give you any jail time for this crime, but I am going to fine you for it, and small monthly payments will be taken out of your monthly check, untill the fine is totally paid.
Now before I send you to the clerk to finish your paperwork concerning this, is there anything you would like to say to this court?"
The frail man rises to his feet and replies "Yes I do your Honor. I did not kill this animal for fun or sport, I killed this animal to survive. The meat from this animal sustained my wife and family for over two weeks, and after the hide was sufficienly tanned, it was made in to small articles of clothing for my four children. I did not waste this animal your Honor"
With hardly a dry eye in the courtroom, the scruffy gentleman returns to his seat. The judge replies " I believe you, but my verdict still stands. This trial is adjoured, and you can follow the bailiff to the clerks office to finish the legal paperwork, but before you do, would you please approach the bench?"
The defendant nods in the affirmative, and makes his way to the judge's bench. The judge pushes his courtroom microphone
out of sounds reach, leans over his bench, and softly but inquisitively inquires;" I'd like to ask you one question before you depart. What in the world does a Florida Panther taste like?"
The shabbily dressed gentleman raises his right hand to his scruffy beard and begins to rub it in deep thought as he ponders the judge's question, and then after a few seconds, gives the judge his reply.
"Well your Honor, that's kind of a difficult question to answer you see, because it's kind of a toss-up between a bald eagle and a manatee........."
Wow! If I had a gorilla ranch, it would have to have really high fences. Is there really that much meat on them? Do they really taste that good?
I think CITES prevents open commercialization which has an impact on massive market hunting for various purposes, but the ultimate solution is to transform endangered species into some kind of economic advantage for the society win which they are found. Like the tourist trade, or sommerical breeding for pet type critters.
But the reason I posted this was not over CITEs, it was over my personal digsut at eating some of this crap. I can understand a starving villager in the African bush, but not a sophisticated "civlized" individual.
Besides, primates and human beings are so similar biologically (PLEEEEEEZZZZEE - NO EVOLUTION ARGUMENTS) that we carry closely related diseases. Hence Ebola and AIDS connections to humans.
It all tastes like chiken. Eat mor chiken?
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