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Lost Coast Brewery & Café de Eureka ha abandonado planes para servir una hamburguesa de canguro “100% salvaje y 100% de canguro” después de descubrir que hacerlo en California es 100% ilegal.

El restaurante y cervecería local, que recientemente fue puesto a la venta, anunció una hamburguesa “Kangaroo Jack” (“asada a la perfección” y servida con “chutney de tomate de arbusto australiano”) en la promoción anual de North Coast Journal “Burger Week” esta semana. 

Desafortunadamente para los gourmet locales que esperaban probar el marsupial saltarín, California prohibió el comercio de carne y pieles de canguro en 1971. Y aunque los funcionarios y grupos comerciales australianos han tratado de revocar esa prohibición (que también prohíbe el comercio de osos polares, tigres, nutrias marinas, delfines y otras especies), los grupos de bienestar animal han logrado mantenerla intacta (menos algunos breves períodos cuando el moratorio de canguro fue levantado temporalmente).

Logramos comunicarnos con Barbara Groom, dueña y cofundadora de Lost Coast Brewery, por teléfono esta tarde y le dijimos que estábamos sorprendidos por la oferta de su restaurante.

“¡Sí, yo también!” dijo entre risas.

Groom dijo que no estuvo involucrada en la decisión del menú, y según lo que ella entendía, un representante de ventas de la empresa mayorista de alimentos Sysco sugirió el canguro después de que su gerente general expresara un deseo por “algo diferente” para la Burger Week. El restaurante ha servido búfalo, alce y otras opciones de carne no comunes en años anteriores. 

Cuando dijimos que estábamos bastante seguros de que la carne de canguro era ilegal, Groom rió a carcajadas. “Sería noticia, si estamos violando la ley”, dijo, agregando que verificaría con su gerente general y nos respondería más tarde. Lo hizo aproximadamente una hora después, diciendo que su gerente general habló con alguien de Sysco, quien “decidió que cometieron un error”.

Wayne Pacelle, presidente del grupo político y de política Animal Wellness Action y del Centro para una Economía Humana, con sede en Washington, D.C., dijo que la prohibición de California sobre la venta de carne y pieles de canguro se remonta al impulso de conservación más amplio en la época de la Ley Federal de Especies en Peligro. 

La ley ha enfrentado repetidos desafíos legales, especialmente de intereses comerciales australianos vinculados a una industria de caza de canguros a gran escala y de empresas que utilizan pieles de canguro en productos como zapatos de fútbol.

“Adidas was very involved and actually challenged the law that went all the way to the California Supreme Court,” Pacelle told the Outpost in a phone interview. Beginning around 2015, he said, a coalition led by his own organizations worked to fend off efforts to “punch a hole in the law.” By about 2016 they had “buttoned it up” legislatively, and a more recent attempt by San Diego-based state senator Brian Jones to reopen the trade was “quickly quashed,” leaving the ban as settled law in California.

However, only the Golden State bans the sale of kangaroo skins and meat. 

“We did introduce the Kangaroo Protection Act in the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate to forbid any trade in kangaroo parts, but that legislation has not yet moved,” Pacelle said.

When told that a local restaurant planned to serve a kangaroo burger with meat provided through Sysco, Pacelle said, “We’re alarmed, and we will be contacting Sysco immediately.”

Dr. Jim Keen, the organizations’ director of veterinary science, said the main problem with kangaroo meat is the lack of proper safety protocols after the animals are slaughtered in the isolated Australian outback. Their bodies are often placed alongside the carcasses of other species in crowded trailers with “questionable cooling,” where they might remain for days before delivery to a slaughtering plant, Keen said. 

Testing and experience have shown problems with Salmonella and spoilage bacteria (including fecal coliforms), leading major former importers such as Russia and China to ban kangaroo meat, Keen said. 

U.S. authorities including the FDA and USDA do not oversee this slaughter the way they do for domestic livestock, instead relying on Australian food safety agencies, which Pacelle and Keen describe as conflicted because they also promote kangaroo meat and skins.

“They don’t have the U.S. safety standards that we all rely upon here,” Pacelle said.

We reached out to Sysco via the company’s website. A couple of hours later, a spokesperson emailed the following statement:

Sysco takes compliance with applicable laws and regulations seriously. The kangaroo meat product in question was purchased from an independent third-party seller through Sysco Marketplace, an online platform that enables customers to access products offered and fulfilled by third-party sellers. 

Sysco did not source, stock, handle, or deliver the product to the customer. The third-party seller supplied and shipped the product directly to the customer.

After becoming aware of this matter, we promptly removed the availability of kangaroo meat products to Sysco Marketplace customers in California.

Burger Week officially kicks off tomorrow. Having yanked the “Kangaroo Jack” as its official entry, Lost Coast Brewery and Café will instead be serving a burger featuring a patty of elk, Wagyu beef and boar. 

Some patrons will be disappointed. Groom said several people told her staff they couldn’t wait to try the kangaroo burger. Personally, though, she wasn’t interested.

“I wouldn’t want one,” she said. “I don’t eat the cute little kangaroos.”