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Bye bye Bambi

A.J.LINN

Tuesday, 11 April 2017, 12:53

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It is not easy to change peoples tastes. How often do we hear, I cant get on with stuff like liver and kidneys, or Sweet and sour flavours turn me off? A nations tastes are even more solidly embedded. Or are they? The British have always been thought of as being very conservative in their eating habits, and anything but experimental. So it comes as a surprise to learn that they are eating twice as much venison as they did a few years ago. Indeed, in a recent survey, 17% had eaten deer meat in the last six months.

Most deer that end up on the table are reared on Scottish farms, although the wild population is also a pool of regular supply. Even so, this is not enough, and with demand increasing 10 per cent annually, Poland, New Zealand and Spain are countries that supply the difference.

But the biggest surprise is that to anyone who ever saw the Disney film Bambi all those years ago the mere idea of eating deer should be repellent. Rather like eating your own dog. Nevertheless, and against all predictions, deer meat is gaining ground over the traditional cuts of beef, lamb and pork. One reason may be the health benefits, as game meat has less fat than other types, in venisons case less than chicken breast without skin.

In Scotland the deer usually end their days in slaughterhouse, or as targets for professional sharpshooters who pick them off on the glens. In America there are so many wild deer that there is no need to breed them on farms. Once the season opens, hundreds of thousands of eager hunters turn out with their muzzle-loaders, bows and arrows, crossbows and modern rifles, to begin the slaughter. More than six million deer die this way every year, with another one and a half million killed on the roads. However much they may have loved little Bambi once upon a time, her film star status has been exchanged for a place on many familys tables.

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