A US restaurant is to serve burgers made with real lion meat during the World Cup, causing outrage among wildlife campaigners. The Il Vinaio restaurant near Phoenix, Arizona, is offering a "lion burger" for $21 (£14), served with spicy homemade crisps and roast corn on the cob.
The restaurant has already received a bomb threat and hundreds of angry emails from animal rights activists. Owner Cameron Selogie said the decision to serve the lion burgers was a tribute to South Africa, host nation of the World Cup. He said: "In Africa they do eat lions, so I assume if it's OK for Africans to eat lions then it should be OK for us."
Mr Selogie added: "We thought that since the World Cup was in Africa that the lion burger might be interesting for some of our more adventurous customers." The meat is from a lion that was raised at a free range farm in Illinois, which is regulated by the US Department of Agriculture. Mr Selogie said he had explained to protesters that African lions are on the protected list, but not endangered.
He said: "Most of them, when we tell them the facts, that this is farm raised and it doesn't hurt the endangered animals, seem pretty reasonable." The restaurant ordered 10 pounds of African lion meat from the farm and it is mixed with ground beef to make a "lion burger." The restaurant is to serve about 15 burgers on Wednesday and the same on Thursday as part of its World Cup celebrations. Animal rights activists are expected to protest outside. A spokesman for the US Department of Agriculture said lion meat was uncommon but not illegal.
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