American Hippo Farming
Over at About.com I posted an article about H.R. 23261 — a bill introduced in Congress in 1910 by a representative from Louisiana. It would have created a hippo meat industry in America by transporting hundreds of hippos from Africa to the marshes along the Gulf Coast. Obviously never got passed, though it had a lot of supporters. One of those things that make you think about what might have been...
Comments
Damn, this news is going to keep me awake at night. Sadly thinking of what could have been.
Posted by Healthy Appetite on 02/17/16 at 01:33 PM
@Alex- You have a typo. The date of Broussard's bill should be 1910 not 2010.
Posted by BMN on 02/17/16 at 04:00 PM
Hippos are nasty!
On the bright side, the gulf coast would have been far less populated.
On the bright side, the gulf coast would have been far less populated.
Posted by crc on 02/17/16 at 04:59 PM
After a bit of wiki searching I found a National Geographic site on Cocaine Hippos about a bunch of hippos released from a drug lord's zoo that are now thriving in Columbia.
Posted by crc on 02/17/16 at 05:04 PM
The hippopotamus is also known as a "river horse." That got me to musing on how someone who raised them (hippoboys?) would proceed to round them up for the trip to the slaughter house.
Then it came to me. You have a situation where you are herding river horses, so you need its counterpart, the "sea cow" or manatee.
Well, maybe not ... Perhaps it's just as well that things are the way they are.
Then it came to me. You have a situation where you are herding river horses, so you need its counterpart, the "sea cow" or manatee.
Well, maybe not ... Perhaps it's just as well that things are the way they are.
Posted by KDP on 02/17/16 at 05:28 PM
BMN -- Thanks for catching that. I was only off by 100 years!
Posted by Alex on 02/17/16 at 05:42 PM
Cows are mostly docile hippos are mean, perhaps we are better off the way it is.
Posted by Patty in Ohio, USA on 02/17/16 at 08:01 PM
Had this come about would the game have been called Hippo-Hippo-Hungry?
Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 02/18/16 at 12:19 AM
Now I'm wondering what hippo tastes like. And Idahoans, for that matter...
Posted by A Nonny Mouse on 02/18/16 at 09:05 AM
I meant nasty behavior.
From Mentalfloss:
In the words of author and hunter Peter Hathaway Capstick, “It is my personal opinion that hippo meat is one of the finest of game foods … The taste is mild, less than lamb and more than beef, slightly more marbled than usual venison. It tastes exactly like, well, hippo.”
I have yet to find anyone who has consumed the flesh of a fellow Idahoan.
From Mentalfloss:
In the words of author and hunter Peter Hathaway Capstick, “It is my personal opinion that hippo meat is one of the finest of game foods … The taste is mild, less than lamb and more than beef, slightly more marbled than usual venison. It tastes exactly like, well, hippo.”
I have yet to find anyone who has consumed the flesh of a fellow Idahoan.
Posted by crc on 02/18/16 at 09:18 AM
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Category: 1910s