Playing by the rules to sell game meat

Squirrel soup. Crocodile meat with black fungus and spring onions. Terrapin in yellow wine. Ostrich satay. Porcupine rendang and mouse deer in green chili sambal.

The sky’s the limit for game meat recipes.

Connoisseurs too swear by its properties. Crocodile meat, they say, is good for asthmatics. Dog flesh warms the body during winter and squirrel soup provides energy.

Despite the lack of scientific evidence, these myths have perpetuated.

The fact that some of these animals are pests is also an excuse to hunt them for food.

Fruiting season is when these animals end up at the wrong end of a gun barrel.

“The monkeys would come in large groups of up to 20 and wreak havoc with the fruits,” one farmer said.

“They would pluck them and throw them on the ground.

“Once the fruits are bruised or smashed, they are no longer saleable.

“Squirrels burrow holes into ripe fruits and the farmer has to bear losses.”

One restaurant in Puchong offered exotic meat such as fruit bat and softshell turtle for the last 34 years.

Another one in Sekinchan that opened just three years ago, is known for its porcupine and mouse deer dishes.

Although the owners have posted their menu on Facebook, they preferred to keep a low profile especially now that the public had become very sensitive about the consumption of game meat as awareness on wildlife protection had grown.

Diners enjoying exotic meat dishes at a restaurant in Puchong.

Diners can enjoy these dishes, provided the restaurants have obtained the licence to sell – one for each species of wildlife offered in their menu – from the Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan).

The licences must be displayed in front of the premises as information to the diners.

These licences ensured that the capture or breeding of the wild animals were legally done and the meat safe for consumption.

The Puchong restaurateur said the crocodile meat cooked at their premises was imported from Australia while the squirrel and terrapin were obtained locally.

The authorities spell out the law

For the authorities, conservation must take precedence over appetite.

Restaurants or any business dealing with game meat must acquire the necessary permits and licences, said Perhilitan enforcement director Khairul Amir Zainal Badri.

“Applications can be made to the state Perhilitan in accordance with the applicant’s address.

“In the case of restaurants which offered exotic meat, it must have supporting documents such as procurement records to verify the meat source and all deliveries must be recorded in a commerce register supplied by the department,” he said.

Squirrel soup with the tail still intact.

Under the Wildlife Protection Act, 2010, the source of the meat must be obtained from licensed resellers or hunters with valid gun permits and hunting licences.

The purchase of game meat caught via trapping or poisoning is forbidden.

A licensed hunter has to record the number, sex and species of wildlife hunted, the date, place, methods used in the hunting, as well as the licence number of buyers of the meat.

If the species is under threat, special permits are required to hunt and to keep the animal parts, and selling of the wildlife must only be done between parties which hold special permits.

These regulations, serve to deter poaching and unmonitored smuggling, said a Perhilitan enforcement officer.

He said Malaysia learnt its lesson upon discovering that the Malayan pangolin had been hunted to near extinction as it was a sought-after delicacy in Thailand, Cambodia and Burma.

“The extinction of a species does not only upset the food chain but the ecology, which will affect the environment,” he said.

What the farmers have to say

Entrepreneurs have found another way to cater to those with a taste for the exotic – by farming the animals.

The Tuaran Crocodile Farm in Sandakan, Sabah, was one of the prioneers to farm crocodiles when it started rearing the crocodylus porosus species for its skin and meat 60 years ago.

In the 1980s, the Sabah Wildlife Department encouraged farm executive director James Chai’s father to put more effort into a breeding programme instead of sourcing reptiles from the wild.

The breeding programme allowed him to be certified by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

The most important criteria to obtain certificate was for the crocodiles to be bred in captivity.

Frozen crocodile legs and meat for sale.

The farm products are sold in a shopping centre in Jalan Kelang Lama but 90% of its products are exported to Singapore and Hong Kong.

Farming, according to Casey Teh, who owns Ostrich Wonderland and The Guinea Fowl Farm in Semenyih, Selangor, was a cleaner alternative as animals caught in the wild were not monitored for diseases by the Veterinary Services Department (DVS).

Teh, who farms ostriches and guinea fowls for meat, eggs and chicks said the demand for game meat in Klang Valley alone was two tonnes per week.

A small-time farmer like himself could only fulfil about 2.5% of the demand.

He said this was proven by the proliferation of imitations.

Buffalo or beef, said Teh, had been passed off as ostrich meat by unscrupulous individuals.

But as efforts to trace the source required time and expenses, cases often are not reported.

The species selected for farming must also be hardy.

“There is no point in choosing an exotic species that requires the extensive use of antibiotics and growth hormones,” said Teh, an electrical engineer who spent 15 years on research and development.

Teh’s ostrich and chicken farm is registered with DVS and once every three months, his animals are visually monitored by government vets to check for sign of avian flu.

Teh has spent 15 years researching his ostrich farming programme. He and his brother, Colin, have another farm in Semenyih. He feels there must be better legislation for game meat farming as it will curb poaching and improve food safety. — Photos: Grace Chen/The Star

But for game meat to become totally legit with its quality preserved along the chain from farm to table, entrepreneurs said much more had to be done.

One is support from authorities in establishing quality and food safety licensing procedures.

In reply to a call to DVS to enquire about standards of farming procedures for game meat, an officer said most of the vets were familiar with conventional livestock such as cattle, goats, swine and broiler hens but more research was needed on the farming methods of exotic animals.

For now, the guidelines on slaughtering as ordered by the DVS director-general was that the animals must be certified healthy and free of residue of veterinary drugs or chemicals.

This is determined through a physical examination or medical records provided by competent veterinary authorities. Inspections are carried out before and after slaughter.

Permission for the sale of meat is only granted in the area where the certificate is issued.

If the sale is to be done outside the region of the certificate’s purview, another licence, for state or national level, must be obtained.

Teh, who has exported ostrich chicks and leather to Vietnam and Japan, said importers’ requirements can be stringent, involving swab tests of the animal faeces to ensure the meat was clear of H1N1, avian flu, escherichia coli and salmonella.

Live animals could be quarantined up to a month before they are given a clean bill of health.