Raccoon meat at South Carolina store must go, officials say

Rooters ^ | Wed Mar 30, 2011 4:45pm EDT | Harriet McLeod

[Rebelbase]

Tipped off by a complaint, inspectors recently found the cleaned raccoon meat in plastic bags inside one of the store's coolers, along with bagged ice.

The Lucky 7 store — located in Gadsden, near the state capital of Columbia — removed the meat upon request, Berry said. But when inspectors went back several days later, they found it outside the building near some trash.

[Rebelbase]

With the way things are going the USDA should probably consider an inspection for coon meat because a lot more folks are going to be eating it.

[Tax-chick]

Aw, that’s just too much. Let people freeze their coon meat if they want to!

[fwdude]

I hear it tastes just like.... oh, nevermind.

[rsobin]

Had it for Thanksgiving years ago. It was a bit stringy, good flavor,and very greasy.

[fish hawk]

We were raised in the country in N. Calif and when we were children my brother ran a trap line. He mostly got skunks and coons but once he got a big bobcat. We roasted one of the coons and ate it but, although it didn't taste bad, I didn't like it because it was too rich and sweet tasting. Never tried it again, although I've eaten Bear many times and would again if I could get some.

[NWFLConservative]

You always have to be leery around small wild game. They can be infected with a gram negative rod named Francisella tularensis, which causes, oddly enough, a disease named tuleremia. It can infect squirrels, rabbits, beavers, raccoons and other small wild game. It is very contagious and highly virulent. Due to the high levels of contagion and virulence, it is considered a select agent, in other words, a potential agent of bioterror. I have worked with it a good bit and I am always extraordinarily careful around it.

If you are cleaning wild game, and you should always wear, at a minimum, full length kitchen gloves. When I work with it I always double glove. While cleaning the animal, inspect its liver (you may need a magnifying glass) for small, evenly distributed, white spots, some less than 0.5mm in diameter. If present, the animal is infected and should be destroyed, along with the kitchen gloves. Wash your hands thoroughly with anti-bacterial soap, followed by hand sanitizer. F. tularensis is something you don't want to screw around with!

[GreenHornet]

Raccoon.....the other white meat.

[Ed Condon]

Had an opportunity to visit one of those rural convenience stores when my FIL lived in Virginia.
We had stopped to get a video tape and some snacks.
Another customer came in and asked for some night crawlers.
The clerk directed him to the cooler, where the worms were right next to the macaroni salad.

[Bernard Marx]

Coons is clean little critters. They love to wash their little paws.

Clean Coons

[Venturer]

Here in Maryland they made the guy up the road from me stop selling Muskrat meat.

[djf]

Personally, I’d be real leary about coon.

Rabies is epidemic in raccoons these days.

[billorites]

Care for a gopher?
No thank you, Delmar.
One third of a gopher would only arouse my appetite without bedding it down.

[Ditter]

What if your dogs eat wild game? Can they get tularensis and if they get it can they pass it on to us, or would we have to eat our dogs to catch it?

[billorites]

I had some lynx last summer when in Canada. First Nations friend of mine gave me some frozen. Had a few too many hairs on it still for my taste. Guess I'm not too keen on cat.

Hope he gives me more bear this year.

[JennysCool]

Tipped off by a complaint

...From a prissy, uptight liberal woman, no doubt.

[Tax-chick]

I’d have to be pretty hungry to eat catz, but the history books say mountain men liked bobcat, lynx, cougar, and so on.

I haven’t had any game since my dad got too sick to hunt. We used to have deer for Christmas every year.

[Tax-chick]

It’s like that around here, too. Macaroni salad, pimento cheese, worms.

[TXnMA]

My parents hunted and fished and I have eaten at a number of wild game dinners. So, I've probably sampled 'most every critter that walks, swims or flies.

But, I must admit that some of the best meat I ever tasted was barbecued young raccoon...

[Wpin]

“I hear it tastes just like.... oh, nevermind.”

It tastes a lot like pork...it is in the same family after all. It is quite tasty although, one has to be careful how it is prepared cause it has a lot of fat which does not taste very good...but, it is definitely one of the better meats to eat.

[OwenKellogg]

It’s like that around here, too. Macaroni salad, pimento cheese, worms.

... and get your taxes done.