Why would anyone eat squirrel brains?

Says man died after eating squirrel brains…
https://www.foxnews.com/health/man-dies-from-extremely-rare-disease-after-eating-squirrel-brains

Because he was hungry?

Knew a guy who loved hog brains and eggs , scrambled together.

I’d like to know how much this increased the odds. 1:1,000,000,000 increased to 3:1,000,000,000 ?

I also wonder if thorough cooking renders it safe. Seems to me lots of things can be prevented by proper food handling and preparation, but this is speculation on my part.

I’d eat a squirrel brain if it were a matter of survival but there are lots of other things I’d eat first if they were available.

Mad cows! Mad deer! And now mad squirrels!
My brain dines on fear’s seize!
Across mind’s lawn they drive prion,
and mad men in Creutzfeldt-Jakob’s disease.

And yet some would think without a blink,
“Fava beans and Chianti with brain.”
Sometimes dining selection can stage insurrection,
of some zombie or lately insane.

The squirrel brain thing has been known for quite a while. Cooking doesn’t destroy the prions which cause brain damage. Eating the brains of squirrels goes back a long time. Part of the concept of not wasting any usuable part of the animal. Eating squirrels isn’t near as common as it once was. It isn’t wise to eat the central nervous system of any animal. It seems eating monkey brains in Africa can also cause this disorder in people. Using sheep with scrapie in animal feed caused cows in Briton, and deer and elk in the US to develop a CJD type disease. The prion is difficult to destroy and the ground in pens in Colorado where the deer and elk were found with it also became contaminated from the animal waste.

Hmm… Ok, squirrel brain is henceforth lowered on my list of survival foods.

As for survival food it’s now a toss up between squirrel brains and broccoli…

Haggis anyone? Mountain Oysters are not oyster! Cow tongue is actually excellent!

If you were poor country people you’d understand better.

My neighbor in Valdosta grew up in Hortense, Ga. His grandpa used to give him two .22 rounds and send him out to get dinner. Often it was squirrel. In winter it was sometimes robbins. Not much on either one so they’d eat all they could.

PS…squirrel is good with okra, tomatoes, corn and corn bread.

German cooking has long included lamb brains, forget what it is called. Tried it in my younger days at a good German restaurant near us. It was edible but that’s it, franly not much taste.

My father was a US Game Management Agent (Federal game warden). He was responsible for migrating doves, ducks, and geese. He loved those critters and never hunted them.
He also loved squirrel hunting, but he did it with a shotgun. Many times I chomped a piece of shot. I remember the meat as tasty but tough.

We raised pigeons so I’ve had pigeon. Squaaaaaab. It was good, but I only did it once because I liked them too much.

Our neighbors hated us, because the pigeons would perch on their roof waiting for feeding time.