American Hippo bill
{{Short description|US congress bill}}
{{Use American English|date=May 2024}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2024}}
File:Robert Foligny Broussard.jpg, who proposed the bill in 1910]]
File:Mother and Young Hippo, Uganda (15397037561).jpg
House Resolution 23261, also known as the "American Hippo bill", was a bill introduced by Representative Robert F. Broussard of Louisiana in 1910 to authorize the importation and release of hippopotamuses into the bayous of the state.{{cite magazine| date=20 December 2013| last = Miller | first = Greg | title= The Crazy, Ingenious Plan to Bring Hippopotamus Ranching to America| magazine=Wired | url= https://www.wired.com/2013/12/hippopotamus-ranching/|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150117001302/http://www.wired.com/2013/12/hippopotamus-ranching/|archive-date= 17 January 2015|url-status= live | issn=1059-1028}}{{cite book |last=Mooallem |first=John |url=https://magazine.atavist.com/american-hippopotamus/ |title=American Hippopotamus |publisher=The Atavist |year=2013 |location=New York |access-date=7 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220130050943/https://magazine.atavist.com/american-hippopotamus/ |archive-date=30 January 2022}}
Overview
Broussard argued the hippopotamuses would eat the invasive water hyacinth that was clogging the rivers and also produce meat to help solve a meat shortage in the United States.{{cite news| date=10 August 2014| last=Mooallem| first=Jon| title=Lake Bacon: The Story of The Man Who Wanted Us to Eat Mississippi Hippos| journal=The Daily Beast| url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/10/the-men-who-wanted-to-every-american-to-eat-wholesome-hippo.html| access-date=13 August 2014| issn=0028-9604| archive-date=August 15, 2016| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160815155120/http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/10/the-men-who-wanted-to-every-american-to-eat-wholesome-hippo.html| url-status=live}} The chief collaborators and proponents of Broussard's bill were Major Frederick Russell Burnham and Captain Fritz Duquesne.{{cite journal| date=27 March 2014| last=Eplett| first=Layla| title=The hunger game meat: How hippos early invaded American cuisine| journal=Scientific American| url=http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/food-matters/2014/03/27/the-hunger-game-meat-how-hippos-nearly-invaded-american-cuisine/| issn=0036-8733| access-date=November 13, 2022| archive-date=March 28, 2014| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140328214312/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/food-matters/2014/03/27/the-hunger-game-meat-how-hippos-nearly-invaded-american-cuisine/| url-status=live}}{{cite book | last =Burnham | first =Frederick Russell | author-link =Frederick Russell Burnham | title =Taking Chances | publisher =Haynes Corp | year =1944 | location =Los Angeles| isbn = 978-1-879356-32-0| pages = 11–23}} Former President Theodore Roosevelt backed the plan, as did the United States Department of Agriculture, The Washington Post, and The New York Times, which praised hippopotamus meat as "lake cow bacon".{{cite news|title=Lake Cow Bacon|newspaper=The New York Times|date=12 April 1910|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1910/04/12/archives/lake-cow-bacon.html|access-date=November 13, 2022|archive-date=November 13, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221113214109/https://www.nytimes.com/1910/04/12/archives/lake-cow-bacon.html|url-status=live}} William Newton Irwin, a researcher for the United States Department of Agriculture recruited by Broussard, told Congress that the bill could add one million tons of meat to the yearly American supply, and further suggested that more exotic animals should be imported for the same purpose, including dik-diks, rhinoceroses, African buffalo, Tibetan yaks, and Manchurian pigs.{{Cite web |last=Parks |first=Shoshi |date=30 May 2023 |title=How the U.S. Almost Became a Nation of Hippo Ranchers |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-the-us-almost-became-a-nation-of-hippo-ranchers-180982244/ |access-date=2024-05-30 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en |archive-date=January 14, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240114232525/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-the-us-almost-became-a-nation-of-hippo-ranchers-180982244/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |title=Hearings before the Committee on Agriculture during the second session of the Sixty-first Congress v. 3. |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433008733986&view=1up&seq=342 |access-date=2024-11-22 |website=HathiTrust |language=en}}
Although the "American Hippo Bill" developed a broad base of support, it was never passed by the US Congress.
See also
References
Further reading
- {{Cite book |title=Love and Ruin: Tales of Obsession, Danger, and Heartbreak from The Atavist Magazine |publisher=W. W. Norton |others=Introduction by Susan Orlean |year=2016 |isbn=978-0393352719 |editor-last=Ratliff |editor-first=Evan}}