I’ve gotten a few questions from readers, asking in some form or another, is it actually legal to eat kitties?
The short answer, if you are in the US, is “probably!”
If your cat is anything like the cats I know, they are possessive, greedy, and wasteful. In one case, fellow cat connoisseur Gary Korkuc gave exactly that same reason when police in Western New York pulled him over for running a stop sign.
Police found a live kitty in the trunk of his car, marinating in cooking oil, chili peppers, crushed red peppers, and salt. I wonder what delicious meal he was planning on having that night!
States such as Missouri have very few restrictions on when, why, and how an owner can kill his pet. In these areas, you may go hog wild in preparing a meal out of Mittens.
Unfortunately, the state of New York prohibits “any person to slaughter or butcher domesticated dog (canis familiaris) or domesticated cat (felis catus or domesticus) to create food, meat or meat products for human or animal consumption. However, you will notice that only the slaughter or butchery itself is prohibited. So if you can find kitty (or dog) flesh at your local Asian market, you will probably be in the clear.
In California, the law is a little bit more strict. California bars possession of the carcass of cats and dogs. Similarly, Virginia bars the unnecessary killing of an animal. However, if you can find a way to keep the kitty alive while harvesting its meat, it seems as if you’ll have the law on your side. Note that bile bears in China serve a similar role – bile is harvested through permanent holes made in caged bears’ abdomens and gall bladders. If you can find a way to keep your furry feline friend alive while harvesting its meat, it’ll be a neat way to circumvent this law! If you’ve found a way to do this (all my own experiments have failed), or even to grow kitty meat in vitro, leave a note in the comments! I’m interested in hearing from you!
Anyway, all this is information that I’ve gleaned from the internet. I am not a lawyer and this website does not dispense legal advice and is not engaged in the practice of law. Happy eating!