Die, Skippy, die!

So it's not just me then?

'Kangatarians' emerge in Australia.

I have to admit that when I saw the link I hadn't the faintest idea what it meant despite the obvious portmanteau. Macropod marsupials with a taste for reggae music, spliffs and photos of Haile Selassei seemed unlikely from the outset but I did wonder if it was going to be something about libertarianism in Australia. Turned out that it isn't, but it's still interesting.

The small but dedicated group originally shunned all meat on ethical and environmental grounds, opposing the way domestic livestock was kept and killed, as well as the impact that large-scale farming had on the planet.
Then, about 12 months ago, one group of friends in Sydney learned about the benefits of kangaroo meat, and decided to spread the word.
Peter Ampt, a lecturer in natural resource management at the University of Sydney and a kangaroo meat advocate, said that while some vegetarians loved red meat, they could not justify eating animals that had been poorly treated.
Kangaroos were fair game because they roamed free and were killed humanely with a single shot to the head. The animals were also in plentiful supply, ate only native vegetation and contained no chemicals, he said.
"These people were vegetarians for environmental and ethical reasons, but the more they learned about kangaroo the more they realised it satisfied their ethical and environmental concerns," Mr Ampt said.
"They started eating kangaroo and loved it, then they coined the phrase kangatarians, it was a bit of a joke initially."

No, people who eat fish and describe themselves as vegetarians are a joke. You guys are meat eaters who were sticking to vegetables for reasons of conscience. Fair enough, I don't eat foie gras. When it comes to lamb, beef, pork and poultry I think you needn't have bothered since there's plenty of meat available that's free range to a greater or lesser extent, but if that's not acceptable to you for whatever reasons it's good that you've found a meat that is.

However, the majority of Australians have yet to embrace the idea of eating an animal that appears on their coat of arms.
Mr Ampt admitted there were many challenges facing the kangaroo meat industry in Australia.

That's true, though it can be a quite gamey meat and not to everyone's taste. But there's also the problem that kangaroos look kind of cute with those big ears and the doe eyes and that slightly sad Eeyore look they have. It's easy to forget that they are not only retards who jump out in front of traffic and write off cars but also dangerous wild animals

Earlier this year a nine-foot kangaroo invaded a house in Canberra during the night, terrifying its occupants...

Nine feet? Not for fifty thousand years or so, fucknuts.Okay, so that bit's bullshit - presumably a UK journo who's never been here and couldn't be bothered to spend two minutes on the web finding out how big they get - but the point stands. People think of them as cuddly and sweet, the Kanga of Disney's Winnie the Pooh (funny how they don't usually have the same mental blind spot about bears), and between that, the gamey taste and the coat of arms thing* it's not such an easy sell. There are also people going on about how they're threatened when the reality is that while some are endangered there are plenty of greys and reds, and these are of course the ones that end up under the grill.

The meat remains a boutique product sold in specialist butcher shops and at select restaurants.

More bullshit from someone who's never walked around a normal Australian supermarket. We can get it at the local shops, the main supermarkets invariably have it, and I know of at least two markets where you'd be unlucky not to find kangaroo (plus one more where I'd expect at least one place to have it). We've got some in the freezer at the moment, though it's only pet grade stuff to treat the four legged fiends.

Still, if people don't want it that's fine. More for me and the kangatarians.

* I've eaten emu as well. Being British the only reason I haven't eaten the animals on that coat of arms is that I suspect lion would taste vile and someone ate all the unicorns already.