AR-News: (US - Tx) Restaurant Under Fire for Exotic Fare

[Mary Finelli]

>From Janice Blue/Go Vegan Texas!:


>From the  Houston Chronicle ... Friday, October 3, 2003

LOCAL RESTAURANT UNDER FIRE FOR EXOTIC MENU
By SALATHEIA BRYANT
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle

It may not be as popular as the buffalo burger, but the kangaroo burger has 
its fans at Ziggy's Healthy Grill.

It also has its critics, and they're cooking up quite a beef with the 
Montrose-area restaurant.

A group called In Solidarity With Animals is waging a campaign to force 
Ziggy's to stop selling hamburgers made with kangaroo meat, contending that 
hunters in Australia are brutally slaughtering the bouncy-legged marsupials.

"It's socially irresponsible for any restaurant to sell kangaroo," said 
Courtney Clarke, the group's founder and executive director.

But one of the restaurant's owners said Thursday that he investigated and 
found that the meat is harvested and processed safely and humanely.

Although Ziggy's, at 2320 W. Alabama, sells only about 100 kangaroo burgers 
a month, they have a strong following, the restaurant's managers said.

There's a priest who comes in about every two weeks to order a double-meat 
burger, they said, and a short, gray-haired Australian man likes to order it 
along with a cup of fruit. Members of a rugby team frequently order it, and 
bodybuilders looking for an extra-lean meat like it, too.

But the animal rights group wants to hound the kangaroo burger into 
extinction.

In addition to charging brutality in the slaughtering process, ISWA 
questions the safety of the meat.

Employees at Ziggy's call ISWA members "food fascists."

The stew over kangaroo meat has heated up this week, with ISWA planning a 
demonstration Saturday outside the restaurant. Members will hand out 
leaflets and someone will be wearing a kangaroo costume, they say.

Ziggy's plans to counter by handing out two-for-one coupons to customers who 
buy exotic-meat burgers. Besides offering kangaroo meat, Ziggy's has ostrich 
and antelope on the menu.

"People like to eat at Ziggy's. People think it's healthy. It's very 
misleading," said Clarke, the ISWA leader. "We have documentation on the 
kangaroo massacre. The point is to get kangaroo off the menu."

Clarke, who also uses the pen name Raya Green, talked about the issue Monday 
on a vegan radio program on KPFT 90.1 FM. Her group's Web site also calls on 
supporters to educate Ziggy's on the nasty business of kangaroo and wild 
game exploitation.

But ISWA's quest to kick kangaroo off the menu has become more than just an 
annoyance. Ziggy's officials say business has suffered.

The restaurant's two business lines are tied up by people calling to oppose 
the sale of kangaroo, they said, and customers are asking about the 
accusations they heard on the radio. The lunch crowd has decreased, they 
added, and they have even lost a catering job.

"It's actually harassment," said Ziggy's manager Shirley Taylor. "I don't 
think it's fair the way they have done us for no reason. I've had a lot of 
sleepless nights over this the last week."

Charles Macias, one of the three physicians who own the restaurant, also 
sometimes waits tables there. He said Ziggy's gives discounts to students, 
police officers and those in the medical profession, and donates to such 
charities as the American Heart Association and churches.

Macias added that the owners thoroughly investigated how the items on their 
menu are processed and believe it all to be humane and safe.

"That doesn't represent how game meat is processed," Macias said of the 
animal rights group's claim. "I think it's easier for them to target small 
people like us. It makes us the victim. It's discouraging when you're 
catering to people who are trying to eat healthy. It is very disruptive."

In the middle of the battle are such customers as Allyson Seder, who ordered 
her first kangaroo burger Thursday.

Seder, who is eight months pregnant, said she wanted to try something leaner 
since she has gained 19 pounds during her pregnancy. She was concerned, 
however, after hearing the group's description of how the kangaroos are 
killed.

"It totally pulled on my heart strings," Seder said. "It makes me think, 
should I have ordered it? I want to know the truth."

But Seder also wondered what would be next if the group succeeded at getting 
kangaroo off the menu.

Her lunch companion, Ellyn Hirsch, strongly questioned the group's claims 
and said she believes ISWA is just pushing the no-meat agenda.

"Humans are carnivores. It should be the customer's choice," Hirsch said.

Clarke, who once partook of the chicken soup from Ziggy's but recently 
became a vegan -- a vegetarian who eats no animal products -- denied that 
the issue is about the vegan or vegetarian agenda.

"It's not about eating meat," she said. "It's about eating kangaroo."

-------------------------------------------------

Ziggy's phone number: 713-527-8588

Ziggy's address: 2320 West Alabama, Houston TX, 77098


www.InSolidarityWithAnimals.com

www.savethekangaroo.com

www.govegantexas.org

To listen to Go Vegan Texas! show on kangaroos, Sept 29, 2003:
go to www.kpftarchive.org

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