Beijing Zoo Restaurant Serves Hippopotamus, Crocodile

That's really awful. I understand if zookeepers themselves are not vegetarians, but eating these particular animals is very unnecessary (i mean, hippo??! you could at least save SOME species out there from human consumption if you can't save others) and I completely agree with Ge Rui about the irony of it all. That they feed these animals to visitors kind of hints that they don't care too much about the animals they're keeping in captivity.

The restaurant’s owns stated that the meat was from animals raised on farms and not from the zoo. As long as they are not serving endanger species, I really don't have a problem with this. Some people have to get over the fact that other places have a broader definition of what is an allowable food animal. I would never consider eating a cat or dog, but I do realize that there are placing out there that do, and I cannot condemn them for it. I eat cows that would be consider scared in some countries.

wtf? shouldn't they be opening a vegan restaurant or something instead? why would you be encouraging consumption of the same animals you're supposed to be trying to protect? oy vey.

This is actually a great idea by the zoo. By eating farm raised animals, you create an economic situation that causes the animals to come back from being endangered.

Think about it, every animal that we eat, wear its fur, or own as a pet is nowhere near extinction. Why is this? It is simply because people have an incentive to protect them.

If they know that they can profit from the sell of these animals, they will protect them, medicate them and breed them. When there is no economic benefit of raising these animals, they go extict.

The American Bison was like this until it was encouraged for ranchers to own them and sell their meat, fur, and skin. Today we no longer worry about Bison extiction although it once was reality. Think about it this way... Is there a shortage of dogs, cats, cows, or chickens? Why isn't there? Because people are alowed to own those animals.

It's a bit weird for a zoo to be doing this, but if they are farm raised animals, I don't see what the problem is so long as the entire carcass is being used somehow.

I had a nice steak at a restaurant in San Diego zoo. If Chinese are more apt to eat a cut of Hippo that was raised on a farm just like that cow I help consume, who am I to judge?

I want a hippopotamus sandwich for Christmas
Only a hippopotamus will do...

I'd love to see a world where people consume (farm raised) local animals rather than importing and raising cattle everywhere, so I aprove of zoo food.
It would be nice to see farms growing native edible plants,and raising native animals instead of destroying entire forests and killing off all the wildlife for a coffee or banana plantation. Better yet, maintaining a section of forest, and harvesting the natural resources as they grow on their own.

Even here in America I've witnessed fields of wild native herbs being destroyed so that one European herb can be grown there intentionally. So wasteful for no dang point.

Zoo's are cruel period, even in the West. Take the Telus hippo ads in Canada. The Vancouver Zoo faced charges of cruelty to the star hippo Hazina.

"Hazina, who was featured in a television ad for Telus, garnered nation-wide attention when the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals alleged she was being kept alone in a small concrete pen with a pool so shallow she couldn't float, causing strain on her legs and joints."
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060625/hazina_hippo_060625?s_name=&no_ads=

Telus ad -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KDj2Uo0IwU.

People complaining have obviously never eaten a crocodile steak. Delicious.

do you get to pick out which one you want, like you do with lobsters??

@Ko

just had alligator a month ago, it is really good, probably not too far off from croc.

It does seem a bit odd, it's like looking at a lobster tank before ordering a meal. Of course, restaurants don't claim to be protecting the lobsters.

I'm glad to see people are so open minded with this. I mean none of these species are actually endangered. Besides, we eat deer around here all the time. Granted we eat a different part of it's anatomy regardless I've had alligator before here in America too and can't imagine crocodile being much different.

Is there anything that the Chinese won't eat?

@ Amberae: Try to steal one of those Lobsters and see what happens to you.

In terms of "protecting" what I meant was that they protect them until sold. This also implies that they can also charge admission to see or hunt the animals like they do at privately owned safari parks in Africa where you can pay to hunt big game. This protects the animals from poachers and ensures that they reproduce and their numbers increase.

When you allow people to profit from animals, the people will breed, medicate, vacinate, and protect the animals from extinction. It is in the African tribe's best interest to keep poachers away from their rhinos, because hunters will pay them money to hunt them, or they can harvest their horns for BS Chineese medicine use or whatever. Because that African tribe makes money off of the sell of those animals, they want to keep the supply of those animals up so that they can continue to sell even more for tourism, meat, skin, and other items that those animals produce where there is a market value for. That is why we should support legalizing the ownership and sell of endangered species for such purposes. Private markets will ensure that those animals are protected from extinction. I bet bald eagle tastes great, and their feathers look good too. Why not privatize that bird and see flocks of them farmed? Can you imagine one day that bird no longer being endangered, but being too populous?

Regular collection of shark fins involves cutting the fin off a live shark, then dumping it back in the water to sink to the bottom of the seabed and die slowly, unable to move.

Amazing that a zoo would intentionally glorify the practice, even if their shark fins may be harvested in a controlled environment. Somehow, I doubt it.

I don't think that they have farms for shark fins. The only method of shark fin collection I have hard of is the removal of a the fins of a wild shark. Fin removal kills the shark.

Seems bizarre, but i guess zoos do serve hamburgers and there are cows 10 feet away.

Quote felixthecat "Is there anything that the Chinese won't eat?"

Well it seems deer penis is more popular than the rest of the animal.
I just hope for the deer population that they dont get to many orders.

Well dear neatorama if the word penis triggers your abuse filter, then your bloggers should not use those words in their articles. Btw what is a more correct name for penis? how can that word be unapropriate?
I guess its a american puritane thing, seems to me you got bigger problems than worry about.