LISTEN: Butcher Harvests Invasive Raccoons to Make Meatballs

Kade is a small German village about an hour west of Berlin. The area reportedly has quite the pest problem, but rather than tossing them in the trash, one entrepreneur found a more sustainable solution: eat'em. Raccoons were brought to Germany in the 1920s and used on fur farms. The trash pandas were first released into the wild in 1934, and now the country is reportedly overrun by some 2 million raccoons. They are an invasive species, negatively impacting local habitats, species and ecosystems. So, local officials had few options; the raccoons had to die. However, one local butcher, Michael Reiss, wanted to do it in the most sustainable way possible, and he wound up making raccoon meatballs, jarred meat, salami, bratwurst and liver sausage, among other products, at Wildererhütte, his butcher shop.