Cape Coast, Feb. 6, GNA - A cross section of residents in Cape Coast, on Thursday, condemned the selling of vulture meat to the unsuspecting public.

The residents were reacting to recent media reports about the killing of 32 vultures at Tikese Atafoa, near Kumasi by two men, in separate interviews with the GNA at Cape Coast.

All residents GNA spoke with were disgusted and said the vulture was a dirty bird whose meat should not be eaten.

Mr Augustus Latieku, an officer at the Information Services Department, said Ghanaians did not consider the vulture as edible and should not be sold to the public.

Madam Kate Olivia Acquah, roasted plantain seller, said it was a "sin" for people to sell vulture meat to the public because the bird was unclean and chop bar operators should not use its meat for preparing food.

Madam Comfort Adobe, a hairdresser, advised chop bar operators to always critically, inspect the meat they buy, to forestall buying unwholesome meat.

Sergeant Daniel Yeboah of the Cape Coast police also observed that the vulture was "classified as a very dirty bird in Ghanaian culture" and that it was unfair to kill it for food.

He in this regard, commended the arrest of the two men who were caught killing vultures.

Sgt. Yeboah suggested that chop bar operators who know intentionally use vulture meat for food should also be arrested and prosecuted to serve as a deterrent to other people.

Madam Araba, a cooked food seller at the ministries block in Cape Coast, also condemned the sale of vulture meat, and advised all food sellers to patronise meat from approved slaughter houses and cold stores so that unscrupulous people do not supply them with unwholesome meat. Madam Charity Bissue, a chop bar operator at Ntsin, a suburb of Cape Coast, said since she watch the story about the two alleged vulture killers on the television, she had found it difficult to buy and eat chicken and stressed that she had never bought meat from any place apart from the slaughter house.

Mr John Appiah, an operator of the ministries canteen in Cape coat, said the vulture was a "very dangerous bird, and that even flies do not hover over its carcass, or settle on it, when the animals dies", and it's meat should therefore not be eaten.

According to him, he did not serve chicken at the canteen and advised chop bar operators to buy meat only from recognised meat shops. It is recalled that two men, Peter Dapaah and Mohammed Abdul Salam, were last week caught killing 32 vultures at Tikese Atafoa near Kumasi.

They were handed over to the police by complainants who suspected them of killing the birds for sale to unsuspecting chop bar operators and kebab sellers.

The suspects were standing trial at a circuit court in Kumasi and have been granted 20 million cedis bail each.