Quite a disturbing food item...

[andrew]

Theres two reasons why you see these sorts of pictures. One is that newts are used in chinese medicine, believe it or not, as a substitute for Gecko! i suspect that these dried out newts are ground up into dust and added with other equally horrible things to create various so called medicines. I know a few people in china and i know that the general consensus of most of the younger generations is that this kind of practice is crazy but alot of the older generations accept this knowledge as fact. Even so, most just dont have a choice as they're so poor and can't afford western medicines anyway.
The other reason we see newts in food markets is of course for food but again, i think people need to eat whatever they can out of a need to survive. Ask your average poor chinese person what they'd rather eat out of newts or chicken/beef.lamb/goat and i'm positive they'd go for the latter(s) every time.
The fact is newts are easily gathered and in the right circumstances can be gathered in large numbers.
My chinese friends have told me that you can buy a species like Pachynobius shangchengensis by the 100 for $10. It's a real sad situation.

 

[coendeurloo]

If it is only the older generation that is using salamanders for medicine/food, we can only hope those habits will die with them when the time is there.

 

[gr33neyes]

This could stir up all sorts of morals and beliefs. At the end of the day we have to accept some things get eaten by some people/animals and some things don't, its called life. Just because someone eats something doesn't mean its wrong. Animals eat their fluffy little babies and other animals we deem cute, thats just survival of the fitest.
As much as I enjoy my axolotls in their aquarium, I'm sure another person would get the same enjoyment from eating them.

 

[ecoreptiles]

Well, at least that photo makes me feel a bit better about buying wild caught animals to simply live out their lives at my place.

 

[i_love_necturus]

I didn't think this thread would get as many posts as it did. I like everyone's input on the subject.

 

[Otterwoman]

Perhaps the toxins in the newt's skin gives people the affects of a hallucinagen? I know of a couple species of frogs that people lick or smoke the paratoid secretions to take a pshychadelic trip...so maybe some newts cause the same to happen?

I'm working up the nerve to give Eddie or Elektra a lick...

 

[salamanderguy]

in china people ate all those weird things as a nesesity hundreds of years ago to survive. but now that they can buy other foods i find it wrong to eat newts because you arent going to stave your hunger off that way and their are more expensive than most foods most likely.

 

[salamanderguy]

If it is only the older generation that is using salamanders for medicine/food, we can only hope those habits will die with them when the time is there.

those habits are dying down like in japan ive heard that some of the younger genaration are refusing to eat whale which they harvest for "scientific studies" then they sell the meat to the genarail population

 

[lims]

yea i heard they had a whole elaborate thing about researching/conserving whales only to discover it's fine to eat them all

 

[Jake]

Here are a couple of my "Tylo-treats", they were imported adults that I had last year and didn't make it. They had bad open sores covering them when I first got them. Some I was able to treat and some died. These two dried out, so I've kept them. The one on the right is an adult female T.kweichowensis and the one on the left is a male T.shanjing.

 

[i_love_necturus]

A bit creepy Jacob, but interesting...

 

[Lasher]

Perhaps the toxins in the newt's skin gives people the affects of a hallucinagen? I know of a couple species of frogs that people lick or smoke the paratoid secretions to take a pshychadelic trip...so maybe some newts cause the same to happen?

Not as far as I know. There are actualy very few species of frog and toad which can be used in this mannor. Of course many are, to some degree, toxic but mainly the stomach cramps and vomiting variety, rather than a 'high'.
The toxins produced by most newts are comparitively weak - unless your allergic or particularly sensitive the worst your likely to experience if ingesting a fairly larg quantity are fairly mild symptoms(vomiting, upset stomach, in the worst cases diarrhea).

That is, afterall, why the good lord gave us THC and psychoactive tryptamines.

I find it fascinating how some people are so ready to dismiss traditional eastern medicine's as less than usefull and 'inhumane', but the roots of western medicine are not so disimillar. Theres been a fair bit of scientific work done on the subject in recent years, and a great deal of the medicines that have been used in china and japan for centuries have been found to have real and genuine merits. Its an interesting subject.
There was actualy an archaeological dig in germany recently, amongst the items discovered were a number of preserved amphibians, some with parts removed, some which dont even appear to be native to the area. I'll post a link later if I can find one.

 

[Jake]

The toxins produced by most newts are comparitively weak - unless your allergic or particularly sensitive the worst your likely to experience if ingesting a fairly larg quantity are fairly mild symptoms(vomiting, upset stomach, in the worst cases diarrhea).

It only takes one Taricha granulosa ingested by a grown man to kill him, so I don't see what you mean by 'ingesting a fairly larg quantity' nor do I consider death a 'fairly mild symptom..'

 

[andrew]

I find it fascinating how some people are so ready to dismiss traditional eastern medicine's as less than usefull and 'inhumane', but the roots of western medicine are not so disimillar. Theres been a fair bit of scientific work done on the subject in recent years, and a great deal of the medicines that have been used in china and japan for centuries have been found to have real and genuine merits. Its an interesting subject.


I don't dismiss any of these claims at all...i agree, pretty much all western medicine is based on compounds found in roots, herbs, flowers etc...if there were no truth in it then we'd have basically died out as a species before we could ever invent modern day medicine....but that isn't what this thread is saying.
I do have a problem with using animals as cures for things however. These "cures" are pretty much all based on superstition and if i use the example of the beautiful and endangered Tiger it becomes clear with what we're dealing with...here are a few things tiger is used for:

Eyeballs : used to treat epilepsy
Tail: certain types of skin disease
Bile : used to treat convulsions
whiskers: to treat toothache
Brain: used to treat laziness...

These so called treatments have hundreds...maybe thousands of years of history and i doubt that these kind of treatments will ever stop being used.

 

[Lasher]

Jacob, note my carefull use of the word 'most'.

I dont disagree, Andy, but I see and fully appreciate the other side of the argument, as it were. You might think it superstition but another may call it belief. On one side western medicine rooted in chemistry and biology on the other a more traditional and spiritualistic approach(for example in China the Yao and Qi).
I dont profess to know which is superior and each is deeply rooted in their respective cultures so its difficult to look at the subject objectively.

I may not like it, but I wouldnt say it was wrong, or that people should stop doing it. It would feel hypocritical too me, I wouldnt hesitate to use a pharmacutical which has been tested on, and may have killed, thousands of animals. I'm also wearing leathers right now and had a bacon sandwich for lunch.

What it comes down too is exploiting animals for our own purposes. Someone may kill a tiger believing its parts can be used as 'cures', I'll kill a cow so its parts can make some trousers I believe make my *** look great.