Quote:
Originally Posted by Stitchawl
They do in the US too. (And in Europe.) But in the US you never hear about it. It's quite common to see venison on European menus, especially in Germany, Austria, Bavaria, etc. Wild boar too. In fact, all the deer that is sold in US restaurants MUST be farm-raised. It's illegal to sell 'hunted' deer. There is so much negative emotion generated by the idea of eating Bambi that advertising the facts would seriously affect sales. But deer aren't the only large game farmed. Buffalo too, but more folks hear about that as very few find buffalo loveable...  |
I grew up in Pennsylvania, which has a huge deer population. Deer hunting is a major sport there, and the PA Department of Agriculture publishes a magazine called Pennsylvania Game News aimed at the anglers and hunters. (Licenses, taxes, tourists coming in from out of state to do it and the like are major sources of revenue for the state, so no surprise.)
Hunting is absolutely necessary, since we long ago killed off most of the natural predators, and it's the only way to keep the deer population in check. A friend lives in rural PA, and was offering me a side of venison a while back - he knows a local who will butcher to order. I have no place to store or good way to prepare it, so I had to decline.
Buffalo meat (in the form of Buffalo burgers) is fairly common in restaurants. Boar is less so, though a friend mentioned that they are now paying bounties on wild boar in Texas. Once again, the natural predators have largely been eliminated, and farms are ready sources of food for those in the wild. I suspect I could find boar on the menu there if I went to the right places.
______
Dennis