The "Coon Man" he's called in Detroit, Michigan

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In a Detroit News article by Travels with Charlie, Glemie Dean Beasley calls himself "the coon man." He claims that locally everyone knows him by that name because he kills raccoons for food. He says, "a man's got to know how to get hisself through them hard times. Part of that is eating right." Indeed, Mr. Beasley believes living off the land is the best way. He claims that the meats processed in grocery stores today are full of additives and that they have an expanding effect on consumers. As a licensed hunter and furrier, he shoots raccoons and rabbits with his .22 caliber rifle. He earns around $12 a each and says that they "taste something like mutton or pork" but "has the aroma and texture of opossum." He says, "there are 100 ways to cook a coon." I'm just glad they don't taste like chicken.

As the son of a share cropper growing up in Arkansas, he left school early, picked cotton, was abandoned by a woman "for a man he calls 'Slick Willy.' " Life has been hard for him and claims "he knows hard, his truck was stolen and his dog was killed."

Check out the website backwoodsbound.com for the latest in raccoon recipes.