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.
