Congressman Robert F. Broussard in 1910 figured hippopotamus would solve a then severe meat shortage and also eat the invasive water hyacinth that was clogging up the rivers in his state of Louisiana. A win-win. So he introduced the American Hippo Bill calling for their importation and release into the bayous. Former President Theodore Roosevelt backed it as did the U.S Department of Agriculture, the Washington Post and The New York Times which described the meat as “lake cow bacon”. The bill fell just short of being passed.
And did no one back then question the wisdom of doing something like this, or ask whether the State should even consider doing something like this? 1910 was during a period of hectic Progressive activity, and this is just the kind of knuckleheadedness bureaucrats and representatives invent.
And the more I learn about Theodore Roosevelt, the more I think that he wasn’t all that great.
In fairness, it was voted down.
It should noted that drug lord Pablo Escobar launched his own hippo importation program for Columbia, which is not doing the nation much good: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27905743
Hippos kill more people per year than lions, sharks and wolves combined: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/11644785/Which-animal-kills-the-most-humans.html
The first soup recipe, made in 6000 BC, was hippopotamus soup. Try it with eggs!
It needs carrots, onions and celery along with salt and pepper.
Look at what’s going on in Columbia, with the hippopotamus that Escobar brought into Columbia!
Ya right our government will do a swell job at with the hippo. Look at the the job they are doing with our country right now!