Culture
Culture of Vietnam
Vietnam's taste for exotic meat threatens species
Sun, 08/16/2009 - 02:52 — myvietnamAs any visitor to Vietnam can confirm, its people have a remarkable taste for meals made from each and every creature. From snakes and spiders to monkeys and rats, there are few wild animals not prized when it comes to the cooking pot.
But there is a price for this extreme omnivorousness. Experts have warned that the Vietnamese appetite for rare and exotic meat is threatening to eat many wild species into extinction.
Among the animals most seriously at risk from the burgeoning demand for "forest food" are the rhino, the white-handed gibbon and the civet.
