Graphic fact file on the civet cat, the species believed to have sparked the 2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, is back on the menu in southern China, a state press report has said. Several restaurants have been caught selling civet cat and other wild animals banned by health authorities after the breakout of SARS, the China Daily reported.(AFP)
Read more: SARS-linked civet cats back on the menu in China - Yahoo! News
Just a thought; Maybe people having sex with animals is how AIDS started.
Unrelated but have ties to the story
Civet Coffee
January 8, 2007
$10 for a cup of cat shit coffee!!!!!
Posted in Food by manocloth
A Minnesota roaster is serving offering the most expensive coffee in the world, but price isn't the only reason people might shy away from it.
An 8-ounce cup of Kopi Luwak coffee sells for $10 at Jim Cone's "Coffee and Tea Limited" store in Minneapolis. One-pound bags go for $420.
Roastmaster Jim Cone told CBS News: "We roast it to, ah, about 420 degrees. It's a very rich, ah, cup of coffee, very chocolaty, ah, actually a carmelly taste around the bottom of your tongue."
Kopi Luwak comes from Indonesia and is also called Civet coffee because the beans are eaten by Civet cats. The cats love red coffee beans, especially the skin. It's this exterior that's processed in the cat's digestive system and discharged.
Cone said, "There's a skin on the pulp and that's what's really digested in their system. And the bean is inside that. After they've processed them in their body, uh, people pick them up and clean 'em."
"I'm trying to block that thought from my head at the moment," said coffee drinker Alex Danzberger.
Kopi Luwak isn't offered at major chains like Starbucks, which is probably just as well for the average coffee drinker.
"I'm really interested because of the way that it's processed," said, coffee lover Bonnie Riley. "Very tasteful. It has a lot of body."
Danzberger said, "It's very rich and soft, ah, real full-bodied. Um, there's definitely a different flavor to it, and you can't quite describe what it is. I hate to think what it is, but it's, um, very good."
"There's not much of it available," Cone said, "It's a unique product."
He added, "You have to have an army of Civet cats to pick this stuff and process it."