# Animals nobody eats **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 28, 2008, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162 "2008-04-28T01:18:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/1 "2008-04-28T01:18:42Z")
Any animal that is no poisonous is probably edible, but some simply are not eaten. Koreans eat dogs, but I’ve never heard of a culture that eats cats. Oh, when a city is under siege or something, alley cats might find themselves being cooked and served up as “roof rabbits,” but there’s no national cuisine, AFAIK, where cats are a regular item on the menu. Any others? ---
**Author:** ![Eric\_Halfabee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Eric\_Halfabee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eric_Halfabee)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/2 "2008-04-28T01:22:47Z")
Anybody eat badgers or porcupines? ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/3 "2008-04-28T01:26:58Z")
I’ve seen a lot of travel shows where the host eats bizarre foods, and I’ve never seen any eat peacock. ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/4 "2008-04-28T01:31:39Z")
[Cat meat is popular in the Jiaozhou and Shantou areas of Guangdong province.](http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20060620_1.htm) [Badger meat was until recently eaten in parts of Spain.](http://www.iberianature.com/material/badger.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brown_eyed_girl/32/3574_2.png) [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/5 "2008-04-28T01:38:51Z")
Lions, hippos, rhinos, giraffes, other African savannah type creatures? ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/6 "2008-04-28T01:40:20Z")
Nobody eats platypus as far as I know. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/7 "2008-04-28T01:41:07Z")
I don’t think there is any common animal that is not poisonous to consume, that somebody hasn’t eaten. This means any rare impossible to get creature isn’t included. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/8 "2008-04-28T01:44:54Z")
Moles? ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/9 "2008-04-28T01:47:26Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] Any animal that is no poisonous is probably edible, but some simply are not eaten. Koreans eat dogs, but I’ve never heard of a culture that eats cats. Oh, when a city is under siege or something, alley cats might find themselves being cooked and served up as “roof rabbits,” but there’s no national cuisine, AFAIK, where cats are a regular item on the menu. Any others? [/QUOTE] Not a regular item, perhaps, but cats are eaten in some parts of China. I’ve seen cats sold in markets and it didn’t look like they were meant to be bought as pets. Peacocks were sometimes eaten in the middle ages, with a few recipes surviving, and again eaten in some parts of China. I don’t think there is anything edible that wasn’t eaten, when possible, at some point, somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![nikonikosuru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5f8ce5/32.png) [@nikonikosuru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nikonikosuru)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/10 "2008-04-28T01:51:13Z")
Hamsters? Not enough meat for the effort, I assume. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/11 "2008-04-28T01:55:04Z")
Skunks? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/12 "2008-04-28T02:03:23Z")
[QUOTE=Brown Eyed Girl] Lions, hippos, rhinos, giraffes, other African savannah type creatures? [/QUOTE] I once saw a photo spread in _National Geographic_ or something of a tribe of pygmies butchering a hippo for meat. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/13 "2008-04-28T02:09:59Z")
[QUOTE=nikonikosuru] Hamsters? Not enough meat for the effort, I assume. [/QUOTE] Don’t be so sure. Peruvians eat guinea pigs, and based on [this thread,](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=465148) some people are fond of squirrel. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/14 "2008-04-28T02:22:57Z")
I doubt anyone would eat a vulture. ---
**Author:** ![jacquilynne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/67e7ee/32.png) [@jacquilynne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jacquilynne)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/15 "2008-04-28T02:24:02Z")
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn] I’ve seen a lot of travel shows where the host eats bizarre foods, and I’ve never seen any eat peacock. [/QUOTE] I’m not sure whether this is the case anymore, but the book I’m currently reading on the history of Food indicates that female peacocks were eaten at one point in ancient Rome. > [@Food: The History of Taste](#): > > Peacocks were much admired for their beauty as they ornamented private and public gardens, the less-attractive female of the species, if not kept for breeding, was fattened for the table of the rich. It also indicates that it was consumed in Renaissance Europe, as an upperclass delicacy, and recipes appear in surviving cookbooks from the era. > [@](#): > > Martino’s cookery book included a recipe entitled ‘how to dress a peacock with all its feathers, so that when cooked, it appears to be alive and spews fire from its beak.’ This choice dish was also included in Platina’s _De honesta voluptate_, where he added the comment that peacocks and suchlike edible birds ‘are more delicious than others and more suitable to the tables of kings and princes than the lowly and men of little property.’ ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/16 "2008-04-28T02:29:49Z")
Rats? Anybody eat rats? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/17 "2008-04-28T02:37:41Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] Rats? Anybody eat rats? [/QUOTE] In James Clavell’s novel [_King Rat,_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Rat_%281962_novel%29) the King and his friends raise rats and sell the meat to the officers, but they **tell** them it’s nutria or something and they eat none themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/18 "2008-04-28T02:38:32Z")
[QUOTE=TWDuke] [Cat meat is popular in the Jiaozhou and Shantou areas of Guangdong province.](http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20060620_1.htm) [/QUOTE] Popular or done by some? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Hockey\_Monkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a183cd/32.png) [@Hockey\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hockey_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/19 "2008-04-28T02:48:05Z")
I came in to say skunks, but was beaten to it. I’ll go with hyenas. No one would eat a hyena. How about shrews, voles, eagles, or tigers? Do people eat those? ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2008, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162/20 "2008-04-28T02:54:11Z")
[QUOTE=jacquilynne] I’m not sure whether this is the case anymore, but the book I’m currently reading on the history of Food indicates that female peacocks were eaten at one point in ancient Rome. [/QUOTE] female peacock = peahen 🙂 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-nobody-eats/447162.md?page=2)