Well, here's one clue: When the meat arrived at Il Vinaio on Tuesday evening, Selogie said it came in packaging with the name 'Czimer's Game & Sea Foods.'Ĭzimer isn't a free-range farm. So where's this supposed African lion farm in Illinois?

And even though he didn't know the name of that plant, Worrilow said he was confident that the meat was inspected by federal regulators. Meanwhile, Worrilow, who essentially serves as a middleman between farms, meat processors and restaurants, also said the meat came from a completely legal plant in Illinois. Selogie says he did his research, and was told that the meat came from a free-range farm in Illinois that is regulated by the United States Department of Agriculture. Selogie said he bought the meat through a Phoenix distributor, Gourmet Imports-Wild Game - a one-man operation owned by Rick Worrilow. Welcome to the mysterious world of back-alley exotic meat purveyance. Lion burgers are an attention-grabbing idea, but it raises the question: How, exactly, does an Arizona restaurant manage to get its hands on African lion meat? She spread word to a local TV station, and the news has since circled the globe, even garnering a brief write-up in the online version of London's Daily Telegraph.

That newsletter - which was the sole publicity Selogie had planned - exploded into a media blitz when one of the e-mail recipients turned out to be an animal activist.

Selogie sent an e-mail newsletter to his restaurant's patrons advertising the special. The story started when Cameron Selogie, owner of Il Vinaio restaurant in Mesa, Ariz., bought about 10 pounds of so-called African lion meat, planning to mix it with ground beef to make burgers honoring the FIFA World Cup's South African location.

Money lio