Turns out there's something fishy about this lion burger meat

Here on the right is a genuine burger made from lion meat, being served by Il Vinaio restaurant in Mesa, Ariz., in honor of the World Cup being hosted in Africa (as we mentioned this morning). As animal activists gather their poster board and magic markers for a protest tonight, CNN did the important work; tracking down where the actual lion meat came from. It is not, evidently, from a “free-range lion farm in Illinois that is regulated by the United States Department of Agriculture,” as Il Vinaio owner Cameron Selogie has claimed.
In related news, I am shocked to learn that my childhood dog, Ruffles, was not sent to live on a farm in Iowa as my parents told me.
According to CNN, the USDA doesn’t inspect or regulate lion meat. And the shipment actually came from a company called Czimer’s Game & Sea Foods, a butcher shop just outside of Chicago, whose owner has served a six-month prison sentence for selling meat from federally protected tigers and leopards.
Video following the jump.

From CNN:

Czimer’s website advertises standard wild game: pheasants, quail, ducks, venison, buffalo and so on. But then, sprinkled through the product list, some wilder offerings pop up. Like llama leg roasts. Or camel cutlets.

And African lion meat. You can snag it in shoulder roast, steak, tenderloin or burger form — or, for a bargain, try the ribs at $10 a pound.

So where does Richard Czimer, the company’s owner, get these lions?

The meat is the byproduct of a skinning operation owned by another man, Czimer said in an interview with CNNMoney.com. He declined to name that gentleman.

“This man buys and sells animals for the skin, and when I need something and he has ability to get it, I will bargain for the meat. It’s a byproduct,” he said.

And where does that mystery man get the lions? “I wouldn’t have any idea,” said Czimer, who operates a small retail store in addition to his wholesale business. “He has his sources, and I do not infringe on his business, just as he does not infringe on mine.”

He’s willing to take a hands-off approach: “Do you question where chickens come from when you go to Brown’s Chicken or Boston Market?” he asked.

Czimer’s exotic-meat dealings have landed him in hot water before. Back in 2003, Chicago newspapers covered his conviction and six-month prison sentence for selling meat from federally protected tigers and leopards. Czimer admitted to purchasing the carcasses of 16 tigers, four lions, two mountain lions and one liger — a tiger-lion hybrid — which were skinned, butchered and sold as “lion meat,” for a profit of more than $38,000.

Napoleon Dynamite does not approve.
Look, I’m all for a wanton killer of rare exotic species making a living, but this whole thing is beginning to stink like the officiating in the Brazil-Ivory Coast World Cup match. If you’ve got some spare time tonight, head on down to Mesa and picket this restaurant jerk. Extra karma points if you do it while wearing a Los Suns jersey.

(Thanks to alert reader emontana).
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Hunting the lion burger butcher [CNNMoney]
Secondhand Lions: Arizona restaurant under fire for exotic World Cup burger [Out of Bounds]