Burger restaurant's 'insensitive' menu item amid Australia's bushfires
A US fast food restaurant has been accused of being insensitive after promoting the sale of kangaroo meat during the Australia's catastrophic bushfires season.
Burger Bar in Utah is known for their “exotic meat of the month” and in the past has advertised shark, llama as well as the “four meat treat” – a burger made with with bison, elk, bacon and beef.
The restaurant raised eyebrows after announcing they would feature kangaroo meat during January, with many calling out the restaurant for bad timing.
It is estimated more than one billion wildlife have lost their lives during the current bushfires, while the death toll has reached 28 people.
While kangaroo meat is regularly served in Australia and overseas, many people have called out the Burger Bar on social media for having “bad timing”.
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“Wow! That’s awful,” one person commented on the Facebook page.
“It’s a really common meat, just bad timing with the fires going on,” another wrote.
“What’s next? Platypus patties?” a third person said.
Owners ‘proud supporters of Australia’
Some fans of the Burger Bar shared their excitement to taste kangaroo and “maybe people just need to quit whining about things out of our control”.
“People are not going to be told what and what not to eat, serve or do, this is the USA,” one person wrote.
“I love the kangaroo and it's my favourite of all the exotic meats they have. I'll be over to get some for sure,” another supporter said.
A Burger Bar customer responded to the criticism in a Facebook fan group for the restaurant, admitting the meat of the month “appears ill-timed”.
Jim Manning wrote he believed the owners of the burger bar were proud supporters of Australia.
“We think there is probably no better time to support Australia and the Australian economy than right now,” Mr Manning wrote, adding he had been asked by the owners to address the criticism.
Burger Bar responds
Burger Bar posted on Facebook they understood the meat of the month “could come across as insensitive”, but they plan the monthly special a year in advance.
“We can assure you this was not planned in any way and is an unfortunate coincidence,” a spokesperson for the restaurant wrote.
The Burger Bar also said storing the meat was a logistics issue.
"We don’t want to let this meat go to waste," the spokesperson said.
Burger Bar said it never served meat from endangered animals and would reconsider kangaroo burgers if the fires cause a major population decline, Fox News reported.
In response to the bushfires, the Victorian government announced they had suspended the state’s kangaroo culling program to focus on rehabilitating wildlife.
The South Australian government also stopped culling on Kangaroo Island.
For more information on how to help Australian wildlife affected by the bushfires, click here.
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