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It's worth pointing out that this isn't some hypothetical. Kangaroo meat is available at most grocery stores and butchers, it's fairly cheap, and quite deliciou

It's worth pointing out that this isn't some hypothetical. Kangaroo meat is available at most grocery stores and butchers, it's fairly cheap, and quite delicious. It's the red meat I buy most often.

vacri 9y ago
It's also worth saying that kangaroo in Australia is a bit like deer in the US: city people think the animal is a bit magical, country people think it's a bit of a pest; some people hunt it for food; you can buy the meat in some butchers but it's not in the diet of most; and occasionally it's culled because of population explosion. The only real difference is that the deer is not a national symbol.
- hkmurakami 9y ago
  Not sure why you're being downvoted, because as a lifelong resident around deer, afaik everything you've said is reasonable, if not true. I live in a rural'ish area with a decent deer population [1] . Most residents see them as endearing, while a minority see them as pests. Go a bit farther out into more rural (but not boonies) areas where people do more serious (but still personal scale) agriculture on their properties, and the ag-pest attitude becomes much more prevalent. Ask any winemaker and they'll call deer a pest. Fwiw I'm in the "magical" camp (being neighbors with a deer rescuer will do that to you!) but understand the ag perspective. [1] There's a family of deer that walk by my property every evening, and this morning I inadvertently startled a buck that was chilling out in front of the house -- they're very timid animals, which I guess is a big difference vs Kangaroos?
  - SAI_Peregrinus 9y ago
    I'm within the city limits of a large city in the northeastern US, and I've seen deer on lawns. And since they spread deer ticks over wide ranges, and those ticks spread Lyme disease, they're definitely more than just an agricultural pest. We killed or drove away all the wolves, so now the deer proliferate.
  - glangdale 9y ago
    Kangaroos are also generally timid, although there are exceptions. I'd had some chilling moments happening across big males and getting stared down. "Ok, bye" <slinks away>
- King-Aaron 9y ago
  As someone who grew up on rural prime production properties and now lives in the city, I find this assessment to be spot on. I know peers who get excited when we go for drives outside of the city limits, so they can see a Kangaroo. I get stressed out driving the car out of the city, because if you see a Kangaroo you're likely to run into it at a hundred k's an hour. They are a bit of a pest in the numbers they've expanded to.
jlawer 9y ago
Fairly cheap... but still more expensive then non steak beef, pork or chicken. I would eat a heap more of it, but its often ~ $16 a kilo when I can get chicken breast for $8
- petitmiam 9y ago
  The price seems to have gone up considerably in the last 5 years. We used to eat kangaroo steaks and burgers regularly, but now we only consider it if it's on sale.
  - userbinator 9y ago
    I guess the price is going to start dropping again once there's too many...
  - anitil 9y ago
    I noticed this as well - a few years ago when I could barely cover rent it was basically the only meat I could afford. Now I think of it as an occasional purchase because it's more expensive than chuck steak.
- jazoom 9y ago
  Exactly my thoughts. I'd eat more if it was more available and not so expensive. If it's in the supermarket it's only like one or two products.
geowwy 9y ago
I don't really have the skills to cook nice Kangaroo but I think it has a lot of potential as pet meat. We switched our pets to kangaroo and feral goat, supplemented with some chicken necks and offal, with some veggie scraps for the dog. The price is not much different from processed pet food (~$4/kilo) but it's done amazing things for their health.
marssaxman 9y ago
I was surprised by the difficulty I had finding restaurants offering kangaroo when I visited Melbourne a couple of years back. I did eventually get to try it, but the meat certainly didn't seem to form a normal part of the local diet. I wondered if there were class connotations about it, or if it were seen as exotic.

It's worth pointing out that this isn't some hypothetical. Kangaroo meat is available at most grocery stores and butchers, it's fairly cheap, and quite delicious. It's the red meat I buy most often.

vacri 9y ago

It's also worth saying that kangaroo in Australia is a bit like deer in the US: city people think the animal is a bit magical, country people think it's a bit of a pest; some people hunt it for food; you can buy the meat in some butchers but it's not in the diet of most; and occasionally it's culled because of population explosion. The only real difference is that the deer is not a national symbol.

hkmurakami 9y ago
Not sure why you're being downvoted, because as a lifelong resident around deer, afaik everything you've said is reasonable, if not true. I live in a rural'ish area with a decent deer population [1] . Most residents see them as endearing, while a minority see them as pests. Go a bit farther out into more rural (but not boonies) areas where people do more serious (but still personal scale) agriculture on their properties, and the ag-pest attitude becomes much more prevalent. Ask any winemaker and they'll call deer a pest. Fwiw I'm in the "magical" camp (being neighbors with a deer rescuer will do that to you!) but understand the ag perspective. [1] There's a family of deer that walk by my property every evening, and this morning I inadvertently startled a buck that was chilling out in front of the house -- they're very timid animals, which I guess is a big difference vs Kangaroos?
- SAI_Peregrinus 9y ago
  I'm within the city limits of a large city in the northeastern US, and I've seen deer on lawns. And since they spread deer ticks over wide ranges, and those ticks spread Lyme disease, they're definitely more than just an agricultural pest. We killed or drove away all the wolves, so now the deer proliferate.
- glangdale 9y ago
  Kangaroos are also generally timid, although there are exceptions. I'd had some chilling moments happening across big males and getting stared down. "Ok, bye" <slinks away>
King-Aaron 9y ago
As someone who grew up on rural prime production properties and now lives in the city, I find this assessment to be spot on. I know peers who get excited when we go for drives outside of the city limits, so they can see a Kangaroo. I get stressed out driving the car out of the city, because if you see a Kangaroo you're likely to run into it at a hundred k's an hour. They are a bit of a pest in the numbers they've expanded to.

jlawer 9y ago

Fairly cheap... but still more expensive then non steak beef, pork or chicken. I would eat a heap more of it, but its often ~ $16 a kilo when I can get chicken breast for $8

petitmiam 9y ago
The price seems to have gone up considerably in the last 5 years. We used to eat kangaroo steaks and burgers regularly, but now we only consider it if it's on sale.
- userbinator 9y ago
  I guess the price is going to start dropping again once there's too many...
- anitil 9y ago
  I noticed this as well - a few years ago when I could barely cover rent it was basically the only meat I could afford. Now I think of it as an occasional purchase because it's more expensive than chuck steak.
jazoom 9y ago
Exactly my thoughts. I'd eat more if it was more available and not so expensive. If it's in the supermarket it's only like one or two products.

geowwy 9y ago

I don't really have the skills to cook nice Kangaroo but I think it has a lot of potential as pet meat. We switched our pets to kangaroo and feral goat, supplemented with some chicken necks and offal, with some veggie scraps for the dog. The price is not much different from processed pet food (~$4/kilo) but it's done amazing things for their health.

marssaxman 9y ago

I was surprised by the difficulty I had finding restaurants offering kangaroo when I visited Melbourne a couple of years back. I did eventually get to try it, but the meat certainly didn't seem to form a normal part of the local diet. I wondered if there were class connotations about it, or if it were seen as exotic.