This has been in the news cycle for about a week now, so it’s not exactly hot off the press stuff. Nevertheless, I thought you ought to know that a restaurant in Arizona is GRINDING UP OUR EFFING LIONS FOR BURGER MEAT.

Didn’t any of those cruel bastards watch the lion king? I’m not feeling the love tonight today. Apparently, the lion-eating restaurateur planned to serve the burgers as a sweet little homage to South Africa’s hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Sigh.

Thankfully, everyone’s come to their senses, and the restaurant that’s serving the King of the Onion Ring Jungle has received a few bomb threats from animal activists who would probably prefer people to be ground up for burgers.

Everyone, let’s just calm down. It gets a little weirder. The source of the lion meat has been discovered.

Czimer’s website advertises standard wild game: pheasants, quail, ducks, venison, buffalo and so on. But then, sprinkled through the product list, some wilder offerings pop up. Like llama leg roasts. Or camel cutlets.

And African lion meat. You can snag it in shoulder roast, steak, tenderloin or burger form — or, for a bargain, try the ribs at $10 a pound.

Go ahead. Check out their products page. Such savoury fare as black bear tenderloin, lion shoulder roast, yak centre cuts and camel stew meat is on offer. Actually, all camel meat is probably stew meat.

At the very least, people should be making this guy’s life interesting – like in the “interesting/horrible” sense. Looks like the police beat us to it.

Czimer’s exotic-meat dealings have landed him in hot water before. Back in 2003, Chicago newspapers covered his conviction and six-month prison sentence for selling meat from federally protected tigers and leopards. Czimer admitted to purchasing the carcasses of 16 tigers, four lions, two mountain lions and one liger — a tiger-lion hybrid — which were skinned, butchered and sold as “lion meat,” for a profit of more than $38,000.

A liger? Really? Don’t you know they have magical powers?

Time to take my brazed Okapi out of the oven.

[source : CNN]