One Utah restaurant came under fire for offeringkangaroomeat burgers during Australia’songoing climate crisis.
When Burger Bar, a family-owned fast food joint located in Roy, Utah, announced its burger of the month option for January as kangaroo, its owners were met with a barrage of backlash on Facebook. Given thebushfiresdevastating much of Southern Australia, placing the native species on the menu didn’t sit well with some customers.
In response to the outrage, a spokesperson for Burger Bar shared amessageon Facebook saying that, though the special was “ill-timed,” they would continue to sell the Australian imports.
“We placed an order for the Kangaroo months ago before the Australian wildfires,” read the statement. “In December, we talked about cancelling the order because we worried it would look insensitive. We could have done this, easily, with no one the wiser.”
The statement continued: “[We] decided that it would actually be insensitive, and also self-serving, to pull our business out of Australia because we were worried about how selling Kangaroo would look. … We think there is probably no better time to support Australia and the Australian economy than right now.”
Google Maps
On Sunday, the owners provided anupdate, thanking customers for their business as the kangaroo burgers sold out within days of the controversy making headlines.
The restaurant — which has offered alligator and camel meat in previous months and has wild boar, red deer and yak slated soon — said they are looking into tracking down more kangaroo meat if possible.
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories
DEAN LEWINS/Shutterstock
With experts now estimatingmore than 1 billion animalsto have died in the Australian bushfires so far,more attentionis being focused on the country as it grapples with the climate disaster.
“We actually considered not doing it, but kind of logistically, it’s very difficult to hold onto hundreds of pounds of meat,” said Fowler. “We don’t have space for it.”
He added: “It shouldn’t offend people. Really, it’s just hamburgers. We’re not making a statement or anything like that.”
source: people.com
