Camel Kebabs For An Eco-friendly Lunch

The Age

Wednesday December 10, 2008

TOM ARUP, CANBERRA with KARL QUINN

EAT camels for Australia. That is one conclusion of a three-year report into environmental degradation caused by feral camels.

The feral herd is estimated to number a million - the world's largest.

Professor Murray McGregor, one of the chief authors of the Desert Knowledge Co-operative Research Centre report, told The Age that camel numbers had to be reduced quickly to save several delicate ecosystems.

Extensive culling is one recommendation, another is using meat for pet and human consumption.

Camel meat, mainly sausages and burgers, is produced by only one abattoir in Australia, Territory Camel, just outside Alice Springs. While Territory Camel sends some meat interstate and overseas, most is eaten around Alice Springs.

Camel dishes include a camel, kangaroo and crocodile pizza served at the King's Canyon Resort, and the traditional Middle Eastern "baked camel", in which carp are stuffed into turkeys, which are stuffed into a sheep, which is stuffed into a camel, which is baked in coals for two days.

Monir Samad, owner of Afghan Village restaurant in Camberwell, has never eaten camel - watching them being slaughtered when he was a child was enough to put him off. But said he would serve the meat in his restaurant if it became readily available.

"You'd certainly get a name for yourself if you had it on the menu," he said. -- With KARL QUINN

© 2008 The Age

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