Some popular recipes related to wild animals still find their way to the tables of patients, in the desert villages of Mafraq Governorate, motivated by the hope of recovery from chronic or incurable diseases, despite the absence of any scientific evidence proving their effectiveness, and the warnings of specialists about their health and environmental risks.
In one of the villages, a man in his fifties, exhausted by joint pain, resorted to eating grilled lizard meat for days on end, based on advice he received from acquaintances who assured him that this recipe “breaks the bones” and restores the body’s strength. The man was not looking for a different meal, as much as he was chasing new hope after a long journey between clinics and traditional treatments.
In another village, Umm Ahmed narrates that one of her relatives slaughtered a wild hedgehog and cooked it in the belief that it is an effective treatment for respiratory diseases and asthma, while a young man from the northern desert confirms that he saw people paying large sums of money to obtain hyena fat or gall, believing in its ability to treat infertility and give strength.
These practices are no longer just scattered individual stories, but in some settings they have turned into something like a popular market for inherited recipes, where the names of animals, birds, and reptiles are circulated as treatments for various diseases without any medical support.
The list is not limited to the lizard and the hedgehog, but extends to include the owl, parts of which some believe give strong eyesight and night vision, and the hoopoe, which is promoted as a cure for forgetfulness and poor memory, while some of its parts are used in acts of quackery and sorcery.
As for the striped hyena, it has turned, among some weak-minded people, into a commodity in a black trade that promotes the sale of its parts at high prices under claims of treatment and bringing strength, while other claims are spread about snake soup or its bitterness as a cure for cancer and hair loss, and wild hyrax meat as a cure for asthma and shortness of breath.
These beliefs find a wide space to spread through popular councils and social media platforms, where individual experiences and personal stories are circulated as proven facts, which prompts some patients to undergo potentially dangerous experiences, driven by fear of illness or the desire to reach quick treatment.
Veterinary medicine specialist Dr. Ibtihal Al-Kharisha confirms that these practices lack any proven scientific or medical basis, warning that wild animals may be carriers of many diseases common to humans and animals.
She added that eating the meat or fat of these animals may expose humans to bacteria, parasites, and toxins accumulated in their bodies as a result of the nature of their food and environment, which may lead to serious health complications instead of achieving any therapeutic benefit.
She explained that some people’s feeling of improvement after taking these prescriptions may be related to the psychological and suggestive effect resulting from the patient’s belief in their effectiveness, and not to the presence of real therapeutic properties.
For his part, Ibrahim Harahsheh, a nature conservationist, warned that the increasing demand for these animals contributes to the growth of poaching, which threatens the ecological balance in wild areas.
He pointed out that many of these species play important roles in combating rodents, agricultural pests, and poisonous insects and reptiles, and that the decline in their numbers reflects negatively on both the environment and agriculture.
On the legal side, Sheikh Yahya Al-Badarneh confirms that the principle in Islam is to treat with what has been proven to be beneficial and is permissible, pointing out that many of the animals whose use in treatment is promoted are among the animals that are dirty or that it is not permissible to eat.
He added that taking medication with something whose benefit has not been proven or with something that may cause harm to a person contradicts the purposes of Islamic law, which is based on preserving the soul and preserving the body.
Social activist Akram Sharaf Al-Khalidi believes that confronting this phenomenon is not limited to implementing laws that criminalize poaching and wildlife trafficking, but also requires continuous awareness-raising efforts targeting various segments of society.
He stressed that spreading health culture and enhancing confidence in medicine based on scientific evidence represents the first line of defense against what he described as “merchants of illusion,” who exploit patients’ pain and their need for treatment, and present them with illusions that may cost them their health and their money at the same time.
Between the hope of recovery and the ease of circulating rumors, there remains an urgent need to establish health and scientific awareness, so that the suffering of patients does not turn into a gateway to exhausting them with prescriptions that are not based on science, and that harm both humans and the environment.
