Barbaric European food practices, Part I: The snail [View All]

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Barbaric European food practices, Part I: The snail

Posted: May 28, 2009, 1:30 PM by NP Editor

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To be a snail born in the EU is a very poor fate indeed. The terrestrial land snail, found throughout Western and Central Europe, is a harmless creature. Subsisting on a diet of algae and plant life, they pose no threat to anyone, and are certainly not hunters.

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These helpless creatures' defences have proven no match for the cruelty of man. For thousands of years, they have been hunted and subjected to bizarre tortures before being consumed as a delicacy by heartless and out-of-touch Europeans. Starting in Roman Times, this barbaric consumption of adorable snails has spread throughout the Eurozone, and is now concentrated most famously in France, where the French word for snail has become synonymous with the cruel preparation for the high-and-mighty - escargot.

To make proper escargot, the snails are first killed, then pried from their shells and gutted. Their remains are then cooked in butter, and -- in a truly despicable step -- are then poured back into their own hollowed-out shells, to be served with garlic and thyme. In order to avoid any toxicity, farm-bred snails are often starved several days before their slaughter, to purge their digestive tracts of anything which might be harmful or even unpalatable to humans. Prior to their culling, they're often put on a diet of nothing more than ground cereal, to fatten them up and avoid impacting on their taste.

The torture and abuse of these blameless mollusks for the culinary pleasure of the European upper-crush must be stopped. The National Post calls on all Canadians to boycott not just snails, but all European appetizers, until such time that the European Union takes action to stop this barbaric practice.

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Things that make me go hmmmmmm

:freak: