By: Sela Ola Olangi Barus

Is it true that "tiger meat" is making Sumatran tigers extinct? First of all, do you know what "tiger meat" is? When you first hear it, you might think it's a type of processed tiger meat. "Tiger meat is a type of sandwich with raw beef as the main ingredient. It is prepared by mixing raw beef and raw eggs with other seasonings and served on a cracker or thin biscuit. This food is generally consumed by the people of Wisconsin, United States, when the holidays arrive.

But unfortunately, according to some research results, the tradition of eating "tiger meat" turns out to be harmful to health. According to the Food Poisoning Journal website, historically in Wisconsin, the consumption of this sandwich resulted in outbreaks of E. coli O157: H7 and Salmonella from 1994 and has had an increasing number of infection victims each year.

It has been published in some media that people eat the meat of Sumatran tigers that have been caught in snares, even though consuming tiger meat has health risks. What are the risks? As quoted from the National Geographic Indonesia website, according to Luke Hunter, a biologist from Panthera, consuming predator meat has many risks because the meat contains parasites and diseases. It should also be noted that the spread of parasites in the meat of predators such as tigers, not only by consuming the meat, but also through physical contact. As experienced by a biologist in Arizona in 2007 where he died from exposure to an outbreak due to dissecting a puma carcass. How about it? Do you still want to consume predator meat?