Great Big Globs Of Mutilated Monkey Meat

Here’s a new term for you: “Bushmeat”. Unfortunately it doesn’t refer to hoards of zombies descending upon the current administration and chowing down on the oval office floor, as lovely a thought as that might be.

Alas, it refers to the rats, monkeys, elephants, bats, and other wild animals from Africa that are being gunned down and used as foodstuffs. The report from ABC News states that

Experts estimate that about 500 million wild animals, from cane rats to elephants, have been killed in Central Africa for their meat. In the Congo Basin alone, this “bushmeat” is consumed on the order of 1 to 5 million metric tons, or the equivalent of 9 to 45 billion quarter pounders.

Further, and of more significance to us in the States, a

small percentage of that meat finds its way into the United States, and with it, scientists warn, comes a potential public health crisis.

This is a really, really bad idea. It’s actually affecting animal populations in the Congo, it’s so epidemic. And jeez, I sure as hell don’t want to get ebola because some stateside jerkoff wanted to have himself an African batwich.

Bushmeat: Curse of the Monkey’s Paw [abcnews.go.com]