Nutria are very clean aquatic animals. LOTS CLEANER THAN PIGS. Once you get past the fact that you are eating a rodent, one that looks like a huge rat, they are quite tasty. Most nutria that people see in So. Louisiana are dead and rotting on the side of the road from being hit by cars. This tends to make people feel that they are gross nasty animals and not fit for human consumption. Nothiong could be further fronm the truth. However, just like deer, a a lot has to do with how you handle the meat after the kill.
The attempt to create a market for them was by Paul Prudhomme of New Orleans restruant fame. The guy that made blackend red fish a choice dish to the point the they were almost fished out into extinction. Unlike the red fish, the nutria never really caught on. My X-Father-in-law was a trapper in So Louisiana. Nutria was a prized fur that made a softer, prettier coat than mink did. There was nothing cheap about nutria products. With the decline of the fur industry, the trapping died off and the only thing keeping the nutria in check in Louisiana are the gators, and they can only eat so much. So. Louisuan is loosing hundreds of square miles a year of marshland because trhe nutria are eating up all the vegitation and there is nothing to keep the marsh from being washed away. A real ecological nightmare.
So if you want to help save So. Louisiana, go down there and eat a nutria. Every little bit helps.
Topic: Nutria (Read 10809 times)
