Food resources for extreme hardship: Dog, cat, roadkill…

(Survival manual/ 3. Food & water/ Food resources for extreme hardship: Dog, cat, roadkill…)

Disclaimer:
Personally, I’ve never eaten dog, cat or roadkill and I’ve never heard a specific story of anyone in the US who has.
The oddest meat I’ve even eaten was from a package of horse meat my mom bought from the grocer in about 1950. I have had dog and cat pets in the household for most of my life and never considered them any less than junior members of the family.
With that said, the purpose of this post is to provide the awareness that other people’s do in fact eat dog and cat, it’s simply part of their cultural norm. AND this article is meant to show you alternative food source possibilities, so that if there occurred an absolutely horrific collapse of human social systems, you might survive on what is now considered taboo and frankly, disgusting to think about, food resources. “Bon appetite!” Mr. Larry.

A.  Butcher—Dog, cat, rabbit, etc.

1. Catch, Kill, Cook, Eat!
16-22 March 2000, by Dan Savage
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/catch-kill-cook-eat/Content?oid=3455
Back in the Stone Age, the average meat-eater was slimmer and trimmer than the average meat-eater today. Before there were QFCs and Safeways, cavemen and cavewomen couldn’t just stroll into the meat department at the supermarket to pick up a choice cut. No, Mr. and Mrs. Caveman had to CATCH something, KILL IT, and COOK IT before they could sit down and EAT IT! Mr. and Mrs. Caveman were fit because going out for dinner meant chasing large animals around savannas, or stalking small animals through the bush. All this chasing and stalking burned more calories before a single meal than most modern carnivores burn in a week at the gym.Mr. and Mrs. Caveman wouldn’t know what to make of modern carnivores going out for dinner. Mr. and Mrs. Modern Carnivore sit on their fat, greasy asses in dimly lit restaurants, ordering cuts from animals most couldn’t pick out of a lineup, let alone pick off with a spear. In addition to being fatter and lazier than Mr. and Mrs. Caveman, Mr. and Mrs. Modern Carnivore are also keenly hypocritical, keeping some animals as pets, while happily sending other animals off to be slaughtered by poorly paid illegal immigrants.

But just because you live in an urban area doesn’t mean you can’t know the calorie-burning joy and satisfaction of CATCHING IT, KILLING IT, and COOKING IT before EATING IT. Forget that step class, Mr. Modern Carnivore! Get off that treadmill, Mrs. Modern Carnivore! And throw away that Thighmaster! Your friends at The Stranger have assembled a step-by-step guide to hunting in the urban jungle. Just follow our four easy steps — CATCH, KILL, COOK, EAT — and you’ll quickly connect with your inner caveman or cavewoman while staying effortlessly slim and trim. Have a good workout, and… bon appétit!… (read the rest of the preceding article at the web site provided above)

2.  Dog meat
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_meat

This article is about human consumption of dog flesh and parts.

Dog   meat
Nutritional   value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy	1,096   kJ (262 kcal)
Carbohydrates	0.1   g
–   Dietary fiber	0   g
Fat	20.2   g
Protein	19   g
Water	60.1   g
Vitamin   A equiv.	3.6   μg (0%)
Thiamine   (vit. B1)	0.12   mg (10%)
Riboflavin   (vit. B2)	0.18   mg (15%)
Niacin   (vit. B3)	1.9   mg (13%)
Vitamin   C	3   mg (4%)
Calcium	8   mg (1%)
Iron	2.8   mg (22%)
Phosphorus	168   mg (24%)
Potassium	270   mg (6%)
Sodium	72   mg (5%)
Ash	0.8   g
Percentages   are relative to US recommendations for adults. Source: Yong-Geun Ann (1999)[1]

Dog meat refers to edible parts and the flesh derived from (predominantly domestic) dogs. Human consumption of dog meat has been recorded in many parts of the world, including ancient China, ancient Mexico, and ancient Rome. According to contemporary reports, dog meat is consumed in a variety of countries such as Switzerland, China, Vietnam, Korea. In addition, dog meat has also been used as survival food in times of war and/or other hardships. The Donner Party, stranded in the Sierra Nevada Mountains during the height of the Mexican-American War, is a noted example of having eaten a pet dog for survival purposes, though it became more known over the years due to cannibalism.

In contemporary times, some cultures view the consumption of dog meat to be a part of their traditional cuisine, while others consider consumption of dog to be inappropriate and offensive. In response to criticisms, proponents of dog meat have argued that distinctions between livestock and pets is subjective, and that there is no difference with eating the meat of different animals, while countering that those critical of dog meat consumption are guilty of cultural supremacy, if not racism. Eating dog is forbidden under both Jewish dietary laws and Islamic dietary laws.

How to Cook Lemongrass Dog
Last update 24 April 2012, wikiHow
http://www.wikihow.com/Cook-Lemongrass-Dog

Lemongrass dog is a very popular Vietnamese dish! Tender dog meat coupled with savory, citrus lemongrass sauce is sure to satisfy any cravings for Vietnamese cuisine. It should be noted, however, that eating dog meat is considered taboo in many countries. Make sure not to offend anyone if this is the case.
[Photo below- right, dog meat on sale at the Kyungdong Shijang Market in Seoul, South Korea, a country where dog meat is common.]

Ingredients

• 2 lb dog meat
• 4 3′ stalks lemongrass
• 3 tbsp Vietnamese fish sauce (aka. nuoc mam)
• 2 tsp lime juice
• 1/2 tsp lime zest
• Jasmine rice (if desired)
• Rice vermicelli (if desired)
• Baguette (if desired)

Steps
1. Acquire two pounds of dog meat. Try to ensure that it is from a medium-sized dog. The breed does not matter, unless you have certain preferences. Usually, the local flea market will have six or seven stands that specialize in dog meat.
2.  Mince four 3-feet stalks of fresh lemongrass. (Alternatively, use an 8 oz. package of frozen minced lemongrass.)
3. Mix the minced lemongrass with three tablespoons of Vietnamese fish sauce, two teaspoons of lime juice, and a half teaspoon of lime zest. A recommended brand is Three Crabs Brand, but all in all, fish sauce tends to taste the same.
4. Chop the dog meat into 1-inch pieces. Add the lemongrass marinade and stir. Leave the mixture refrigerated overnight.
5. Either sauté, steam, or grill the meat. A recommended way to cook this dish is to skewer the meat chunks and roast it in a rotisserie oven.

Cat may not be the most glamorous, or tastiest of game meats, but with a little thought and preparation, Baked Cat can make the belly of the persnicketiest diner glow with home-baked goodness.

Cat Braisé
http://catrecipes.com/recipes/braisedcat.html
[PETA Does NOT approve of the catrecipes.com website]
•  Snap the leaves off the artichokes until only the tender inner leaves remain. Snap off the stem. Trim the remaining green bits from the bottom of the artichoke, and cut off the inner leaves in a bunch at the point where they are very tender. Pare the tough green outer layer off the remaining stem, pairing the stem into a point. Now cut the artichoke bottom into quarters and remove the choke with a sharp knife from each quarter. Rinse to remove any traces of foin (“hay”) and drop them into a bowl of water acidulated with the juice of half a lemon.
• Heat 2 T olive oil in a large heavy casserole or Dutch oven. Dredge the cat pieces in seasoned flour, shaking off excess. Brown over medium heat, turning regularly, until golden on all sides. Remove cat pieces to a plate and dump any oil remaining in the pan. Add 1 T of the remaining oil and the bacon dice. (Omit bacon if you only have access to the thin-sliced vacuum packed supermarket variety.) Sauté until cooked but not “crisp”. Add the remaining T of oil and the onion and carrot. Sauté for 5 minutes, then add the artichoke quarters and the garlic, stir one minute, and add the tomatoes and the white wine. Turn up the heat and reduce until syrupy, stirring constantly, for about 5 minutes. Lay the bouquet garni on top of the vegetables. Arrange the cat pieces on top, together with any juice accumulated in the plate.
• Pour in enough broth to come halfway up the sides of the cat pieces. Cover and bring to a simmer. Continue to simmer over very low heat about 1 hour or cook in the oven at 350 degrees for the same amount of time. The cat should be just tender and part readily from the bone. Don’t overcook or it will become dry. Check the liquid level frequently and add more broth if necessary. Turn the cat pieces once.
• When done, remove the cat pieces to a warm platter and arrange the vegetables, removed with a slotted spoon, around them. Cover and keep warm. Strain the remaining pan juices into a smaller saucepan and reduce over high heat, skimming frequently, until reduced by 1/3. Pour over the platter and serve immediately. Sprinkle with finely chopped flat-leaf parsley if you like.

Beer Can Cat– Includes a Beverage!
http://catrecipes.com/index.html
Ingredients:
1 cat
1 can of beer (any brand)
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground pepper
1/2 tsp chili powder

Mix spices and rub over cat. Drink half the can of beer and then place beer can into rear of cat and stand cat tripod-like on BBQ.
Rotate in 30 minutes. Cook for a total of one hour.

.

B. Road Kill

1.  Road Kill: It’s Fresh, It’s Organic, It’s Free (and now, it’s DELICIOUS!)
© 2009 Chelsea Green Publishing All rights reserved.
View this story online at:< http://www.alternet.org/story/141595/&gt;
Pasted from: http://www.masterjules.net/roadkill101.htm

How broke would you have to get to eat roadkill? You know, ‘street pizza’.
Don’t freak out. This isn’t a sensationalist necrophilic bizarre fetishized kind of thing.
It’s legit. Actually, depending on several factors, it can be perfectly safe (and entirely affordable) to eat meat that has been left by the side of a highway or county road.

In fact, there may be not much of a difference from a deer you hunt, and a deer you kill accidentally. Now, this may sound a bit extreme to you. But according to Sandor Katz, lifelong activist and food lover, roadkill has been a source of food for poor people since cars were invented. So, don’t be classist. At least read more about it!

The following is an excerpt from, The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved: Inside America’s Underground Food Movements by Sandor Ellix Katz. It has been adapted for the Web.

If you pay attention and look at the road while driving (or, even more so, while walking or biking), you will inevitably encounter roadkill. Animals moving across the landscape are often unavoidable prey at fifty-five miles per hour. Little systematic counting has been done, but extrapolating from data collected by road crews in Ohio, one analysis estimates there are an average of more than one hundred million roadkill victims in the United States each year. Dr. Splatt, the pseudonym of a high-school science teacher who for thirteen years has organized students around New England to participate in a roadkill census, comes up with a very similar estimate of 250,000 animals killed by cars in the United States on an average day. Some people see food in these unfortunate victims of our car culture and regularly pick roadkill up off the road to take home and eat.

A few passionate souls I have encountered eat roadkill almost every day. My neighbors Casper and Pixey bring roadkill stews to our potlucks. For a while they did their frying in grease rendered from a roadkill bear they came across in the mountains. On one of my friends Terra and Natalie’s visits, they had strips of roadkill venison splayed across their dashboard drying into jerky.

When I first met Terra, she was vegan. Then she and her boyfriend Ursus — who has the word vegan tattooed onto his shin — discovered roadkill and quickly became roadkill carnivores. In her zine, The Feral Forager, Terra explains how they came to start eating roadkill:

Our first feral feast of roadkill was on spring equinox of 2002. That past winter we had experimented with skinning and tanning, using a possum and a raccoon we had found on the roadside. . . . On spring equinox we were driving in the suburbs of a large southeastern city and spotted a fox dead on
the roadside. Our first thought was what a great fur it would make. We scraped it up (it wasn’t very mangled at all) and took it to our friends’ house downtown, and Ursus skinned it in the backyard while our friends assisted. When it was all done and hanging gutless and skinless from a tree, it was like
some collective epiphany: why not eat it? There was a great firepit there and several willing “freegans,” along with a few pretty hardcore vegans (including Ursus) who raised no protest. After a couple of hours on a spit, the grey fox was edible. I guess it was something about the start of a new season — it was
almost ritualistic, without trying to make it so. Some stood by and watched while four or five of us feasted on the fox. Ursus, a hardcore vegan, was perhaps the most voracious. There was something primal about his eating — like a wild man caged for years eating only bagels and bananas. Ursus tanned
the skin and later wore it around his neck like a scarf.
Terra, Ursus, Natalie, and other members of the Wildroots Collective in western North Carolina now eat roadkill nearly every day, have a good supply put away in a freezer, and have tried dozens of different species of animals found dead on roadsides.

The Wildroots folks have become enthusiastic promoters of roadkill and work hard to spread information and skills to empower other people to tap into this huge available food supply. Members of the collective do a good bit of traveling on the do-it-yourself skillsharing circuit, teaching people how to judge the edibility of a dead animal on the road and guiding them through the experience of skinning and cleaning a small animal. At the 2005 Food For Life gathering at the Sequatchie Valley Institute/Moonshadow, one of the most memorable events was the hands-on roadkill workshop, in which we learned about the cleaning, skinning, and butchering of roadkill animals. The Wildroots folks brought a roadkill groundhog with them, and our friend Justin, another roadkill enthusiast, brought a squirrel he had found on his bike ride to the gathering.
(The more slowly you travel, the more you notice not only roadkill but all sorts of roadside harvesting possibilities.)

People enthusiastically took front-row seats to see these animals get skinned. Some people shuddered in horror, had to look away, or otherwise expressed their squeamishness. But most people watched quietly, fascinated, as Natalie coached Dylan, a previously uninitiated thirteen-year- old (there with his family) through the skinning of the squirrel, and Jenny and Justin skinned the groundhog. Direct experiential education like this can be transformative. Laurel Luddite wrote about her first roadkill butchering experience, “The responsibility made me nervous at first. As I cut I began to feel confident that not only could I butcher this deer, but I could also fulfill my need for food whenever I saw some lying by the side of the road.”

Roadkill has been a source of food for poor people since there have been cars. In American culture eating roadkill generally has a pejorative classist connotation, epitomizing ignorant hillbilly behavior. Now Wildroots and other enthusiasts are embracing roadkill with a political ideology, rejecting the values of consumer culture by “transforming dishonored victims of the petroleum age into food which nourishes, and clothing which warms.” Beyond ideology, they are spreading practical information and skills to empower people.

2.  Terra’s zine, The Feral Forager, offers a basic primer for safely eating roadkill
Picking up roadkill is a good way to get fresh, wild, totally free-range and organic meat for absolutely free. When you find the roadkill you should try to determine if it is edible or not. If you saw the animal get hit then it’s obviously fit to eat (although you may have to put it out of its misery). If the critter is
flattened into a pancake in the middle of the highway then it’s probably best to leave it. Most of the time (not always), good ones will be sitting off the road or in a median where [they aren’t] constantly being pulverized.

Sometimes it can be hard to determine how fresh a carcass is. A lot of factors can contribute to how fast the meat spoils, especially temperature.
Obviously, roadkill will stay fresher longer in colder weather and spoil faster in warmer weather. It’s best to go case by case and follow your instincts.

Here are some considerations to help you decide:
•  If it is covered in flies or maggots or other insects it’s probably no good.
•  If it smells like rotting flesh it’s probably spoiled, although it is common for dead animals’ bowels to release excrement or gas upon impact or when you move the carcass.
•  If its eyes are clouded over white it’s probably not too fresh (though likely still edible).
•  If there are fleas on the animal there’s a good chance it’s still edible.
•  If it’s completely mangled, it’s probably not worth the effort.
•  Rigor mortis (when the animal stiffens) sets in pretty quickly. Most of the animals we’ve eaten have been stiff. There’s no reason to assume the animal is spoiled just because it’s stiff. . . .

3.  Potential Risks of Eating Roadkill
One of the most severe risks of roadkill is rabies. In order to assure your safety from this deadly serious brain inflammation, you may want to use rubber gloves when gutting and skinning any warm-blooded animal (warm blooded as in mammals and birds, not in regard to blood temperature). If you don’t feel the need to exercise this absolute caution, at least make sure you don’t have any open wounds on your hands or skin that touches the animal. Roadkill is usually safe from rabies because it dies quickly when the animal dies. Also, rabies will cook out of the carcass. Generally speaking, boiling the animal first (rather than just grilling it) is a good idea, especially if it’s a notorious rabies carrier (like raccoons, skunks, and foxes).

Sandor Ellix Katz is the author of the newly published The Revolution Will Not Be  Microwaved and Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of
Live-Culture Foods (Chelsea Green, 2003). He travels widely teaching people about food preservation and alternatives ways to get nourishing food. A native of New York City, he lives in Tennessee.

4.  Road kill cooking tips
a) To feast on free meat, YOU NEED THE NERVE to park at curb, wait til no one’s looking, then safely pull the corpse into the car. USE a paper or plastic bag over your hand. Set on newspapers. If the corpse was a meat eater, don’t pick it up. Cats, dogs. Just birds and animals with hooves. Recently I picked up a wounded Possum, gave it water, fruit but it died. I was too cowardly to peel it, gave it a Christian burial. Well, we’re only a few months into the GREAT DEPRESSION, not hungry enuf.
b) RITUAL CLEANSING. Drop corpse into sink of water. SEE WHAT CRAWLS OFF. A lotta stuff WILL but don’t let that get you. It’s wild life.
Nothing more or less. Humans have eaten wild life for millenia. Use strainer, pick the moving bugs off, dump in yard. I do not knowingly kill any wild life.
c)HOW TO PEEL. We who do not regularly slaughter animals call removing the skin ‘peeling’ as the only thing we’ve ever peeled is a cuke. SHARP SHORT PARING KNIFE. INSERT A new kind of “ZIPPER” down its front –from google to zatch. Remove meat from peel. Whether it’s a pidgeon or a
deer, peel it. Skin it. Whatever.
d)BURY the “peels” deep in COMPOST PILEas your family would look very unkindly at animal corpses especially with faces…being brought home and cooked in pots they use for oats in the morning and remains lying around the yard or looking up at them from the bottom of trash cans. This I know. I learned to adore ‘berdolagas’ in Mexico where maids cooked it saying that it was a great Spring delicacy, and instantly recognized purslane when I came back to USA with 4 babes and saw it growing on the curb outside our rented shack. My kids would say ‘mom, dogs pee there.‘
They’d then ask, “are we that poor?’ their bewildered faces turned up to me in horror. I tried to be a good mommie and not give them complexes. Instead, I took purslane seed at summer’s end and planted it in our back yard garden. But the confounded stuff would only grow on sidewalk cracks and curbs. I learned to pick purslane by flashlight.
e) 99% of road kill is only useful for pets. You should get so lucky you’d find a deer before the blood clotted. If blood is clotted, next stage is larvae. FLY LARVAE means two days old, don’t eat it. Suggested method for cooking meats for pets is adding carrots or greens to the soup. Carrots require 30 minutes, tough game meat …one hour at a slow simmer. A fast boil toughtens meat. Lower the better. Greens go in last 5 minutes.
f) Slow cooked meat is pulled off the bone when cool, carrots smashed or grated into it.
g) There’s a pound of snails a night in the average garden. Flashlight, bag. Simmer in salted water, 4 min. Turn off, cool. Pull out of shells.
Manicure instrument helps. Saute in chicken fat 10 seconds, garlic powder. Your friends will let you in their yard when you’re out.

5.  Eating Road Kill
July 16, 2010, FireSteel.com, Survival Topics, Written by Ron Fontaine
http://www.survivaltopics.com/eating-road-kill/

During the last Great Depression in the 1930’s, “road kill” was considered a table delicacy for many who would otherwise be going without meat. Deer, various birds, rabbit, bear, raccoon, even porcupine and a variety of other animals killed by vehicles and left lying on the side of the road became an important source of protein for many a family.

An important feature of road kill is that the hunting has been done for you. There the animal lay; all you need to do is pick it up, skin it out, and cook it up. A gift from the Gods a hungry man should not pass up!

[Photo: Road Killed Deer.During times of need, many people have considered road kill to be a “windfall”. This whitetail deer was struck by a vehicle while trying to cross a country road. As long as the kill is fresh and the animal was healthy, its meat is perfectly safe to eat. As with all meat, be sure to handle and prepare it properly before consumption.]

You Won’t Eat Road Kill?
Don’t think you could eat road kill? That’s simply because at this time you can afford to snub your nose at such easy free meat.

Sure, right now many of you are squeamish at the thought of eating road kill. After all, your stomachs are regularly full and probably have been for all of your life. You likely have never experienced firsthand what it is like to go hungry for several days straight – or even weeks. Your cupboards are well stocked, and as much food as you could possibly want is waiting for you at the local grocery. That could all change.

During times of natural and manmade disaster or economic collapse food sources can quickly dry up. It’s amazing how preconceived food prejudices are soon rejected when real gnawing hunger sets in. After a few months without enough food and you will think nothing of eating insects, worms, rats, or anything else that comes your way. Served with wallpaper paste a nice road kill raccoon roast would be a seriously welcome addition to the dinner table.

When you think about it, what’s the difference whether that animal was dispatched at the meat processing plant, by a hunter in the forest, or a speeding automobile? None. As long as the meat is reasonably fresh and well cooked it will not matter one iota how the animal met its end. What does matter is feeding yourself and your family; road kill could put meat on the table when food is scarce and your survival is at stake.

Road Kill is Good Food
Road kill is traditionally accepted mealtime fare in many areas. In my neck of the woods moose are almost daily hit by motorists speeding through moose country. Referred to as the “bull of the woods”, moose are often afraid of nothing and are frequently encountered crossing roads. Besides totaling the vehicle, a 1000-pound moose is usually severely injured or even killed. As you can imagine a moose of this size has considerable quantities of meat. In some cases these road killed moose are given to poor families, charitable organizations, or even the owner of the vehicle that hit it.

As when you shop for meat at the supermarket, you want to insure your road kill meat is fresh and has not “gone by”. Although obvious signs of potentially spoiled meat include smell and the presence of scavenging insects, maggots, and the like, meat can also be spoiled without these signs. You must cook all meat thoroughly in order to destroy any disease-causing organisms or parasites.

If you find road kill on a stretch of road you had just passed over several hours before, then chances are your road kill is reasonably fresh and you are in meat. As in all things, the best survivors are aware of their environment and open to opportunity as it presents itself, however unexpectedly. Road kill meat is a potentially valuable resource in times of need and not to be overlooked by the hungry survivor

See also 4dtraveler post: (Survival Manual/3. Food & Water/ Trapping)