Lion Meat Tacos. Expensive For You And Biodiversity.

Boca Tacos y Tequila in Arizona has recently announced that it will start serving African lion meat as a taco option for their "Exotic Taco Wednesdays." Tacos will cost about $8.75 each, as a single pound costs the restaurant $100. Though people have already started paying in advance for the rare meal option.


The restaurant has received many comments in protest even over the internet, many claiming that they will boycott the restaurant. Lions are listed as being a vulnerable species. It is legal to sell although the population has dwindled to less than half of what it was in 1950.

Now, I'm all for trying new things. But I try to be aware of the price of what I eat beyond what I charge to my debit card. It seems to me that if people are introducing a new form of exotic food, I would rather it be something that worked against the problem of food sustainability, rather than against it. More livestock that are already being produced for our consumption will go to waste. Besides this, even the restaurant owner believes that he will lose money on the lions, meaning that he will be unable to sell all of these slaughtered big cats, but is doing it purely for publicity.

Laura Massey is an art major with heterochromia iridum, which is not a disease, with a passion for finding uses for trash, thrift stores and eighties movies. She believes unflinchingly that it's probably fine.