Ikea is serving up Santa's finest in Europe. And animal rights activists are none too pleased. Apparently, in Sweden reindeer meat is quite the holiday treat, so it makes sense that the purveyor of solutions for modern living and unofficial ambassador of Swedish culture would spread the love.
The slaughter of thousands of tiny, tiny reindeer (seriously, "More than 70 per cent of reindeer slaughtered for meat are calves that have grazed during the summer, which means they never even get to see snow." says one activist) is a real problem. In a letter to Ikea, Viva! a vegetarian British company cited the "considerable physical and mental stress" caused by the wildlife round up. Which seems rather an understated, though typically British way, to refer to slaughter.
Reindeer meat balls and reindeer sausages are popular in Scandinavian countries, in addition to the aforementioned salami. No word yet on when this holiday delicacy will hit Red Hook, Brooklyn, but a call to the Ikea there went like this:
“What is reindeer meat?” (heavy Brooklyn accent)
“Meat from a reindeer”
“Like Rudolph?”
“Yep.”
“Oh god. I don’t know. Let me ask my manager.”
[Holiday hold music]
Manager: “We might, I don’t know. You'll have to check back."
