Bonjour, how would you like your steak? Rare? Endangered?

A group of researchers have discovered that the trade in illegal bush meat is ‘rife in Europe’. The researchers have estimated that about 270 tonnes of illegal bush meat could pass into Europe every year, based on figures from seizures of bush meat from passengers over just 17 days at the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.

The team of researchers found that nine people out of the 134 that were searched were carrying around 188kg of illegal bush meat to be sold in Europe for personal consumption and as part of an established trade.

Bush meat is meat from animals poached in the wild. To those who are buying it in Europe, it is effectively exotic game. The attraction is that the meat is caught in far away countries and not something that you could buy down your local supermarket.

So, what is the big problem with bush meat? First, there is no control over which animals are to be taken from the wild; therefore, animals that are on the protected species list are also taken. Indeed, in the seizures of bush meat in Paris out of the 11 different species four were found to be protected.

All too often there are two victims when an animal is poached for bush meat, mothers with babies who are still too young to take care of themselves. When a mother carrying her young is shot from a tree, the baby is killed from the fall, however, if the baby should survive, the amount of meat on the animal is not worth selling to the buyer, instead the baby now finds himself part of another trade. The pet trade. Not only has the baby had to watch his mother being killed, but now is subjected to being ripped away from her body, and placed with strangers who will keep him as a pet. The orphan will spend the rest of his life in a cage until the day he grows too big to be played with. Then, who knows? He may even end up on the same dinner plate his mother was once on.

This study is alarming and clearly shows where the gaps are in stopping the trade of illegal bush meat. How did those passengers get the carcasses out of the country and into the plane in the first place?

There is an urgent need to tighten the control on borders to prevent bush meat from exiting and entering countries. In the past, when seizures are made on animal smugglers, they have been stopped and searched because they are observed acting suspiciously. The officials in airports are looking for drugs or weapons, not animals.

For the locals who hunt bush meat to sell to neighbours or to feed their own family, it is a trade that puts food on the table. This small scale hunt is turning international and larger orders are being placed putting a greater demand on the number of animals hunted.

The repercussions are going to have devastating effects of the wild animal population, especially those already on the threatened list.

Is it worth all that just to impress your friends?

Illegal Bushmeat 'rife in Europe', BBC Science and Environment