France Declares Open Season on Snails
Originally published in June 1909
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“The French Minister of Agriculture, after a careful examination of the subject, has established ‘the legal status of the snail’ by defining snails as animals injurious to vegetation, and therefore legally subject to capture and destruction at all times and seasons. This decision has created dismay among the numerous persons who earn a livelihood by collecting snails for market. Snails are in high favor with French epicures, and immense numbers of these mollusks are eaten in Paris. In the winter of 1900 the consumption of snails in the French capital amounted to some 800 tons.”
—Scientific American, June 1909
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