May I interest you in a beaver butt breakfast bun?

I'm a carnivore. I have no problem salivating over a steak or mowing (this sounds like "mau, as in "Maui" ing, not mow, as in cutting-the-grass, ing.) down on chicken parts or pig ribs. Meat is a big part of our diet.

However, there are certain animal consumption scenarios I am not comfortable with: I wouldn't eat a cat. You probably couldn't pay me enough to consume moose liver. And you won't find me dining on sheep's eyeballs anytime soon. (These are all things some people across our world will joyfully consume.) 

But what about the secretions from beaver anal glands? Now doesn't that sound like an excursion in yumminess? 

When it comes to eating candy, I always savour 'red' flavours - raspberry, strawberry, cherry and even watermelon. And what about vanilla? Mmmm yum. Vanilla flavoured anything, even scented items that aren't actually eaten are simply divine. Or are they? 

Let's digress for a second here...

Do you ever buy blueberry muffins or bagels? 

I don't know the reasoning here - be it cost, preservability, taste or whatever-  but about 99% of the time, if you actually read the labelling, it will say "simulated blueberry flavour" or something like that. 
 That's because those 'chunks of blueberry goodness' aren't actually blueberries. Or anything in the fruit and vegetable world actually. They are coloured chunks of beaver anal gland secretions. Yup. read that again. Congealed beaver anal gland secretions. 

My apologies if you thought you were vegan, yet eat anything store-bought that is blueberry, raspberry or vanilla flavoured. Ingredient listings will say "natural flavours." And truly, the anal glands of beavers are pretty much as natural as you can get. But vegan they are not. 

You can google or Snopes this if you think this is just too far fetched to be real. 

Castoreum can be defined as the yellowish brown  unctuous slime substance with a strong, penetrating odour which beavers secrete from castor sacs located in skin cavities between the pelvis and the base of the tail, and spray when scent marking their territory. (The location of the beaver's castor sacs means that castoreum also often includes a mixture of anal gland secretions an urine as well.)

Castoreum is so favourably fragrant, that we've been using it to flavour ice cream, gum, pudding, candy and brownies - and basically anything that could use vanilla, raspberry, blueberry, or strawberry substitute, for nearly a century. 

Gag if you must. But you cannot deny eating this in your lifetime.

My obvious first question is ... who the hell discovered this? Seriously??!! Who was the first person to think, "Let's eat this beaver's anal glands to see if we can market it as candy, pudding and simulated vegan flavouring in muffins and bagels."? 

Bagel anyone?