Would a pet store be allowed to sell you a pet-designated animal like a guinea pig (which is a common food source in some countries) if they knew you were going to eat it? This is assuming that you were planning to kill it humanely so you wouldn’t be breaking any animal cruelty laws.
It might depend on state and local laws.
So are there any jurisdictions that would allow you to eat a dog?
Dogs and cats are recognised as a domestic non-livestock animal in the USA, so I doubt it’s legal to consume either one anywhere in the country. Most pets now in pet stores have never been recognized by most juridictions as a domestic pet and are livestock. They are not able to sell anything that is considered wild game and regulated by the state as a game animal. Game animals are considered public property for the people of the state they are in. The state reserves the right to regulate their distribution and harvest. Most non- indiginous animals are not considered wild game.
Eleminate all animals that are wild game, or domestic pets and the remaining are regulated as livestock. Animals that aren’t specificaly regulated by any laws, are covered by any general local, or federal laws pertaning to livestock. Something like a guinea pig is a livestock animal and unless a local law bans it’s consumption, you can eat it. Your more likely to find they ban livestock in town and be told you can’t keep guinea pigs in town. Wisconsin produced the most circuses in the USA, and they have had many exotic animals to deal with. They’re drafting a law right now in this county because the neighboring county is dealing with a person keeping lions and such. They’re heading this guy off at the pass before he moves them in here. It will allow for the legal right to prevent animals considered dangerous to be restrained such as being muzzeled and not to be removed from enclosures. The enforcement wil be done by the sherrif instead of the local animal control agency.
Tennessee has a law:
‘‘Wild animals accidentally killed by a motor vehicle may be possessed for any personal use and consumption.’’
That includes bobcats, but I don’t think wild dogs would be kosher.
You can buy mice, rats, Guinea pigs and rabbits for snake food at most pet stores, so I doubt it’s illegal to sell then as “other than pets”.
If you live near a major city with a significant population of Asians, Latinos, Middle Eastern folks, or just about anyone non-Western (og, what a horrible term that is, but I can’t think of a better descriptor), you can find shops that specalize in the more unusual meats. Usually, they offer alive-until-you-order-its-death chicken, duck, fish or rabbit. But, do a bit of research and you can find turtles, quail (a domesticated version, though), pheasant, pigeon, frogs, bear, kangaroo, etc. And almost any significantly large Chinese apothocary type shop will have everything they can possibly import as medicines. Seahorses are my favorite, but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen tiger penis too. I need to learn to read Chinese.
Besides, if you’re not squimish, you can always pick up someone’s surplus guinea pigs at a flea market and do it yourself. The health department people don’t like folks doing home slaughter, but, as far as I know, they don’t have any particular laws against it in California.
I’m pretty sure you haven’t, considering how illegal it is. Now, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if you’ve been in a medicine shop that had some on hand - the Chinese underground market is legendary - but they wouldn’t keep it out on display. It would be one of those things you’d talk to the owner about, in very roundabout Chinese hypotheticals.
I would hope that you would report something like tiger penis, since it’s illegal to trade in.
A good note on stuff like that is the trade saw a drop to 50% of what it was after the release of Viagra.
Wisconsin has had problems with the Mung population digging up the protected plants to the point of none are left in some public parks. It goes to show that illegal stuff does show up for sale and we need to educate refugees better on some subjects when they get to this country. I don’t want to derail this subject so I won’t post more.
If it wasn’t tiger penis, then I don’t know what it was. Dried, right size and shape. A larger version of the cat penises I’ve been studying in school. There were only 3 of them and they were done up in fancy packaging with ribbon and fabric. They were in a glass cabinet, but it was way in the back of a very large store. And, next to the three foot tall dried sharkfin, they were the most expensive thing there. The more common stuff they labeled in English as well as Chinese. Everything in this cabinet was Chinese only, aside from the numbers.
It could have been tiger penis, which is why if it is you should report it. It’s trade in endangered species.
This could be excepting game species of fish, such as large mouth bass, which are legal to sell live in Illinois and quite commonly available for sale. Granted they’re not sold at an edible size, but they’re still a state recognized game animal.
In Wisconsin you may keep game fish a live in a tank under these conditions.
- It’s legal to catch and keep the fish in the tank.
- You must have a valid Wisconsin fishing license.
- You may not have more than your legal daily limit of the fish.
- You have the name and address of the owner of the fish on the tank.
My great grandma sold bass to places that wanted to restock the fish. The people had a license to do this given by the DNR at that time.
You can do that same thing in Illinois, but I think that only applies if you wish to keep and display caught fish. You can also buy live largemouth fingerlings at the aquarium supply store and I don’t think that these regulations would apply.
Maybe not.
In Wisconsin you can’t.