Skippy

In the late 1960s there was an Australian televsion show called "Skippy the Bush Kangaroo" (it aired later in the 1970s in Canada).  This week in the Brisbane Times there was an article titled "Eat More Skippy".  Apparently not enough Australians are eating kangaroo.  We have certainly seen it in restaurants and can say that it takes like a gamey beef.  Our local butcher sells kangaroo on occasion, and seems to sell out quickly.  There are kangaroos all over Australia, both wild and domesticated, so why isn't kangaroo a more common meat?

Kangaroo meat is low in fat, it is obviously locally raised (or at least from somewhere in Australia) and kangaroos are really prolific.  They, like all marsupials, can keep a fertilized egg in utero for many years, just waiting for the right conditions to let the embryo mature to a joey.  Now that there is abundant vegetation from all the rainfall in 2010 and 2011, there are plenty of kangaroos to go around.  The other upside of kangaroo meat is that the animals are never exported to other countries for butchering, countries that may not have great records of treating animals humanely (a recent scandal involving cattle).

Mechanaroo, in a real-life pose

Real kangaroo, world champion lounger

 The article in the paper asked all the questions about why Australians are not readily embracing such a low-fat, tasty and healthy meat.  The animals are humanely raised and are always free range.  The skin of the kangaroo makes extremely fine leather.  They really are the perfect stock animal.  Now we feel bad for buying so much beef!