A friend was discussing all the armadillos she trapped last year at her farm in Arkansas, and this got me thinking about these unusual critters. We've all heard that armadillos can be vectors for Hansen's disease -- leprosy -- but transmission is rare. In fact, 95 percent of human adults are immune to leprosy.
But I happened to run across this item on the CDC site, and tomorrow is the fourth Sunday in January -- and the 70th annual World Leprosy Day. Can't hurt to pause a moment and think of those who do have it -- and of the terror it brought in earlier times.

https://www.cdc.gov/leprosy/world-leprosy-day/index.html

P.S. Armadillo meat is supposed to be like fine-grained pork!

My neighbor, who lived in Bolivia for 13 years, says Armadillo meat is good. Said he used to cook em in the shell after gutting and cleaning. Said he’d cook one up for us some day.

opossum on the half shell!

I ate 2 small "steaks" before I found out what it was. Then had a third. I honestly thought it was boneless pork chop. dang good.

I'm going to pass...

My armadillos have figured out how to dig into and kill fire ant mounds so they are my friends now.

Yep, they also get a pass on my place.
I also don’t allow any shooting of coyotes. I saw one catch a pig. I have also seen Several pigs that the yotes have gotten.

I have no issues with the pigs. I just need to teach them how to destroy fire ant mounds.

Yes, quite a different disease (and Stigma) in years past.

In the early 1980's I was living in LaCombe, Louisiana. I had an occasion to visit the Leprosarium in Carville, Louisiana.

https://prcno.org/revisiting-louisianas-medical-legacy-national-leprosarium-carville/

It was an impressive facility to say the least. Not a place I would have normally visited on my own but a severe hand injury I sustained when one of my horses kicked me led to my seeing renowned hand surgeon Dr. Paul Brand who at the time was working there.

He was a long time friend of my parents and they were frequent monetary donors of that charitable facility (and others). Being only an 1.5 hr drive away we went to see him for an evaluation of my injury and to tour the site.

Not knowing much about Leprosy at the time.....I thought it was going to be a pretty 'creepy' experience, but was quite relieved to find the opposite.

Yes, there were crippled, disfigured patients there.....but most simply had issues with extremities (hands, fingers, feet, toes). But the 'stigma' of the disease (at the time) was still very real. I felt sorry for many of the residents there, that despite having been treated....had nowhere else to go.

My own injury, a couple of broken bones and temporary nerve damage (treated later at a hospital in New Orleans) ended up opening my eyes to the plight of those suffering from Leprosy and learning a bit about the history of it. It is very treatable these days, but that was not always the case in years past.

They also catch alot of fawns.


May be a contributing factor as to why your deer population is down

Great post, flintknapper.
There are some real saints who have ministered to those with this disease, mentioned more than three dozen times in the Bible.

https://www.nps.gov/kala/learn/historyculture/damien.htm

I've eaten armadillo fajitas a couple of times and it's surprisingly good.

My FIL calls them "Hoover Hogs" cause that's what his dad ate during the depression.

I shoot every coyote to protect current and future fawns and the biggest sow in every bunch in order to leave the small ones with less protection.

Armadillo meat is very good. Clean white pork texture.

Well that's three out of three who have actually eaten it saying it is very good.

I'm convinced if most of the people on this forum tried it, they would really like it. I've posted the story on here before, but when I tried it the first time I thought I was being pranked. I had never even heard of anyone eating armadillo before that. I was surprised at how good it was.

Yeah, they did that at the house we had down there. I left the little guys/girls alone. Did have one die (not sure what killed it) at our neighbor's house one year. The neighbor wasn't living there and the smell of death was STRONG...took me a little bit to find it as although I mowed the yard for them, the flowerbeds were overgrown. Found the carcass and put it in the street so the buzzards would find it and dispose of it. They did. Nasty creatures!

I heard more than three claim that porcupine was some lush tender white meat, they are a bunch of fibbers
But I might try armadillo.

Several years ago I found a few that had been killed by something that bit through their shell and ate them. I never did figure out what did it but it stopped after a week or so.

yup

I had forgotten about this scene from "Papillon," which I need to watch again. Steve McQueen and Anthony Zerbe. Doesn't get much better than this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GvcNDt_FpU