The Guardian– A Cornish man famous for eating badgers and other roadkill has added an even more unusual item to his Christmas larder – a dolphin he found washed up on a beach.
Arthur Boyt, 76, has spent years feasting on dead animals he has salvaged from roads, including weasels, hedgehogs, squirrels and otters.
Last Christmas Boyt, a retired marine biologist, tucked into a badger casserole, but this festive season his menu will be spiced up with dolphin meat.
Boyt has already had a taste of his find. “I’ve got to admit, it’s nothing to write home about,” he said. “It’s not very fishy or oily. I fried it up and it was quite tough.”
Boyt does not buy meat and has been eating roadkill since the age of 13; he says his oddest meal was probably a bat he bought back from holiday.
“The great thing about roadkill is knowing that the animal hasn’t been purposely killed,” he said. “I feel very strongly about killing animals, so strongly, I can only just about manage a chicken leg at a party or something. I would never buy meat.”
Boyt is spending Christmas Day with his mother-in-law who is cooking a turkey, so he has the option of something a little more traditional if the dolphin does not appeal on 25 December. His wife, Su, will be eating neither dolphin nor turkey as she is a vegetarian.
Conservationists, however, are not impressed. Danny Groves, a spokesman for the whales and dolphin conservation charity WDC, said anyone who came across a stranded animal, alive or dead, should report it to a cetacean strandings investigation programme (CSIP) hotline.
Groves said animals could be carrying diseases and pointed out dolphins are considered “royal fish” belonging to the crown.
The government’s official advice for dealing with a dead dolphin is also to call the hotline rather than taking it home and eating it. “If you think the whale or dolphin is dead call the hotline and let them know where you found the animal,” it says. “To avoid disease, don’t have any contact with the dead animal without the right protective clothing, eg thick rubber gloves.”
Boyt argues he has spent years eating found meat without any ill effects. As to the dolphin being a royal fish? “I don’t suppose the Queen will be interested in getting back a dolphin that has been dead for a month or more.”
Well now that this guy is out and in the media, I 100% expect the government detain him and run a full blood panel on him and run lab results all on this dude. You don’t just go 70+ years of life eating road kill and bush meat and live a totally normal healthy life. There has to be something to his body. Either he has a belly full of tape worms ravaging his organs and we don’t know about it or he has a stomach that’s completely resistant to all types of parasites. If he said he ate road kill like a deer that was freshly hit on the road, okay, I’d buy that one maybe (I’ve actually heard of people doing this). But we’re not talking about venison that’s been killed by a truck going 75 mph on its ass. We’re talking about eating fucking otters and weasels. This dude brought home a dead badger to feast on for Christmas dinner. That’s not fucking normal. None of that can be normal. Its meat can’t be normal. If I’ve learned anything from The Office its that bats can carry rabies and this guy is just casually eating them because he brought them back from vacation. That would be like bringing back salt water taffy from Atlantic city except the salt water taffy can contain a viral disease that causes acute inflammation of the brain.
I tell ya something isn’t right with this guy. If anything, whatever parasite he’s eaten has probably gotten to his brain already if i can guess anything from him. I mean you think his logic is sound here? Would never buy meat from the grocery story because he thinks killing animals is bad? Yea I’m gonna assume there’s a bug gnawing at his neocortex. Go enjoy your rubbery dolphin meat, Arthur, but you probably have something keeping you alive from bad meat and if that is the case I’m gonna want the CDC to quarantine and examine your ass.
The Ugly Orange 