What’s The Beef Over Horse Meat?

[casallc]

What’s The Beef Over Horse Meat?
By Leslie Linthicum / Of the ABQ Journal on Sun, Apr 22, 2012

Following reports that a Roswell meatpacker was seeking federal permission to slaughter horses and process horse meat, New Mexico’s governor, attorney general and land commissioner weighed in strongly against the idea and an equine protection group called it “a national disgrace.” This newspaper’s editorial board took its own umbrage last week, opining that “Americans don’t eat Trigger.”
Dare I add my own less outraged – and therefore less popular – thoughts to the issue?

Here goes: Meat’s meat.

That Americans canonize some flesh (“BEEF! It’s what’s for dinner”) but find eating horse meat gross or barbaric is one of those powerful but irrational cultural norms that allows us to be “us” and to differentiate ourselves from “them.”
We don’t eat horse meat because horses are beautiful and noble, and without them we would never have tamed the West or turned prairie into farm land. We don’t eat horse meat for the same reasons we don’t eat our dogs.
But as we love our horses and villainize those who would eat them, we also quietly ship our horses to slaughter to feed consumer markets elsewhere.
It’s not illegal to eat horse meat in the United States, and until five years ago it wasn’t illegal to slaughter a horse and, like other livestock, package and sell its meat. When Congress stopped funding USDA inspections of horse meat in 2006, the horse meat processing industry was effectively shut down.
Did that save a lot of horses from a meat hook?
Last year, the U.S. Government Accountability Office issued a report that outlined the state of equine slaughter: About 138,000 American horses (out of an estimated 9 million) were sent to slaughterhouses in Canada and Mexico in 2010. That’s about the same number as were slaughtered here before the ban on horse meat inspection shifted horse slaughter across our borders.
That tells us what we probably already had guessed – that the ban didn’t save horses from slaughter; it only moved it to other countries. By logical extension, allowing U.S. slaughter houses to kill horses again won’t result in any more being killed. It will only change the location of the deaths to USDA-regulated facilities, which we know would save horses an uncomfortable trip to Mexico and we hope would ensure a more humane end.
Lifting the ban and allowing a New Mexico businessman to get a piece of the industry wouldn’t mean Americans have to eat horse meat. And considering the gross-out factor in this country, it probably wouldn’t even be for sale here. The simple fact is that horses that would be slaughtered in Roswell (and if not Roswell, somewhere else) will be packaged and shipped off to people in countries where people do eat Trigger – Italy, Canada, France, Japan, Sweden, Belgium.

Why am I finding it hard to jump on the outrage bandwagon at the prospect of someone applying for permission to conduct a business that has been perfectly legal in this country for as long as any of us has been alive? My copy of the “Joy of Cooking” doesn’t have any recipes for cooking horse meat, but it does have recipes for squirrel and chicken and woodchuck and venison and beef and duck and opossum. To eat any one of them is just as baffling to me as eating another. I haven’t eaten meat of any kind (or fish or fowl) for a couple of decades, and as a vegetarian, I don’t get the extra “ew” factor that would come with porcupine instead of pork on the plate. For you to eat it, somebody killed it.

What does it say about us that our morality is based on aesthetics and sentimentality? Do we kill and consume only the homely and spare the beautiful? Is it more barbaric to sacrifice an adorable or noble animal for your dinner table? If so, why do Americans eat rabbit and veal and lamb? Is killing a cow OK because we haven’t named it, saddled it up and taken it on a pack trip or bet on it at the racetrack or watched a movie about it?
The fact is that horses die, sometimes of old age and sometimes of illness or injury, and when they die, they are often eaten. People who love their horses and have the resources to hire a backhoe and the space on their property for a grave big enough to hold a car sometimes bury their horses. But most dead horses go to a rendering plant (at the horse owner’s expense), where they provide meat for zoo animals and become components of pet food and glue. Allowing horse slaughter here provides a similar option for horses that are no longer wanted or whose owners no longer can take care of them. Stopping horse slaughter in this country doesn’t stop the suffering of horses, but it does give horse owners a better option than dropping them off on the mesa where they can starve to death. That same GAO report that found no reduction in the slaughter of American horses for meat when the industry shifted to Mexico and Canada found the shift negatively affected prices paid for horses (by 8 to 21 percent). And it found a corresponding rise in investigations for horse neglect and more abandoned horses since the local option for horse slaughter was removed in 2007.

Winston Churchill said, “There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man.” I think there is something about the outside of the horse slaughter outrage that tells us a lot about the inside of a man, especially a sentimental one with a napkin in his lap and a steak on his plate.

— This article appeared on page A1 of the Albuquerque Journal

http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2012/04/ ... -meat.html

[Equipoise28]

This author completely missed the point. It's about the treatment of horses at the slaughter plants, not what happens to them after they are dead.

It's a cultural taboo in the Anglophone countries to eat horse meat, something that probably goes back to the Celtic goddess Epona in Britain. I wonder why this vegetarian is suggesting that the rest of us eat it? Sounds like she had a deadline to meet and was out of ideas, IMHO.

[casallc]

This author completely missed the point. It's about the treatment of horses at the slaughter plants, not what happens to them after they are dead.

It's a cultural taboo in the Anglophone countries to eat horse meat, something that probably goes back to the Celtic goddess Epona in Britain. I wonder why this vegetarian is suggesting that the rest of us eat it? Sounds like she had a deadline to meet and was out of ideas, IMHO.

I think YOU missed the point. Horses were treated much better at USDA slaughter plants than they are now in Mexico or Canada and didn't have to suffer the days of travel.

She didn't suggest anyone eat meat - only suggested a realization of hypocrisy and phony moral outrage.

[ArchDandy]

I would avoid it, even though I would love to try horsemeat, I know almost every one of those horses got dewormed and vaccinated with chemicals not meant for animals intended for human consumption.

[Bast]

I would never choose to eat a horse anymore than I would choose to eat one of my cats.

However, if the choice is between horses being hauled to a miserable, unregulated slaughter in Mexico, and a regulated, humane one in the US, I would prefer horses sent to slaughter be processed here.

It isn't pretty, but the present banning of slaughter is not yielding the expected results.

[karenkarenn]

Casallc "Horses were treated much better at USDA slaughter plants than they are now in Mexico or Canada and didn't have to suffer the days of travel."


YOU, YES YOU need to get your facts straight... LIKE NOW
First of all THEY ARE NOT treated well at all. And that is the point of all this worry and angst over horse meat. Since there is on very very prominet person in our city that does it for a living--- yes buying, gathering for slaughter. I have first hand knowledge that these horses ARE BEING MISTREATED. I have seen them, rescued a few and watched the horror to their demise for those who are not rescued. The majority have worms, never vacinated. Sick, have strangles-- he has more strangles outbreak there than anyone in the county. And do you really think the brand inspectors care what the horse looks like or if it has lip tatoo. NO Hes doesn't! He can't even tell the difference between a bay and a chestnut. They don't check for markings. I have been there, front and center and its horid. People don't care, they really don't. What you really think that you are eating Meat that has been vacinated and free from disease????? They kill them while there sick.
Horses go to Utah all the time, and our state too, why because:
1. People can't ever give their horses away
2. People can't afford the hay
3. Some horses are mean and they want to get rid of them
4. Horses get sick, people can't afford to treat them


If you really think that these animals are being treated well, you need a serious reality check or come down to my county in the U.S.

[Jean]

Against horse meat, unless you are a vegitarian and eat only homr raised organic vegetables, all livestock produced for human consumption are regulary dewormed, medicated as needed to keep healthy, deloused, given steroids stc to grow. The excuse that horses are dewormed etc is a bad example of why one would not eat it. Personally I have no intention of eating it as I have no intention of eating goat or sheep or many other animals raised for meat but lets not get this subject going again on this forum!

[casallc]

karenkaren:

"YOU, YES YOU need to get your facts straight... LIKE NOW"

I have my facts straight, thank you. I have been in the horse business over 50 years as was my father (horses and cattle) and my grandfather. There is no one who appreciates a good horse more than I do. I have never mistreated any animal and despise anyone that does - even more despicable are those who mistreat animals out of ignorance (so called rescues). Those people that "save" horses are usually just as overzealous as charlatan preachers claiming to save souls. I don't call it being "saved" to take a horse from a trip to the slaughter house to a dry lot to be slowly starved to death by some moron that thinks an occasional hand-fed carrot is all the sustenance needed to keep a horse healthy and fat. It takes land and money to keep horses and if you don't have both you shouldn't have them. Someone who takes a horse or horses then has to beg for assistance to feed and keep them is a fool. Most rescues are made up of fools who in turn put most of the horses in the hands of other fools who eventually starve them. Slow starvation is another form of hell that, if a horse could reason, it would prefer the captive bolt dispatch to any day.

Very few good horses have ever gone to slaughter; few horses are sold directly to slaughter houses. There use to be a market for horses and that market started at the current market price per pound (yes there was a market for horses just like cattle sheep and hogs). A good useable horse will always bring more than killer price. Some horses are just worthless or dangerous animals and slaughter is the highest and best use for them. Those are the ones that usually go to the killer. Since the USDA facilities have been defunded that market has disappeared and horses have zero value - hence people dumping them to starve. Thanks mainly to bleeding heart ignoramuses who like to feel good by supporting the ban of slaughter.

If you will honestly analyze the numbers of horse abuse cases, you will find that “rescues” are commonly hoarders that are prime offenders in horse abuse. I have respect for the minority of true rescues that are actually knowledgeable horse people that are actually rehabilitating functional horses – but they are few. Those that recycle invalid horses to a life of pain and hunger, I have nothing but disdain.

By the way, if you have firsthand knowledge that the person in your town is mistreating animals and you don't turn him in to the authorities you are as guilty as he is. If you have and he was found not to be guilty – well that is something else.

[Tucumcari]

Totally for the slaughter of horses being kept in the USA.
I have no issue with it. None of my horses will ever end up at slaughter, BUT that's my choice.
As a Primal eater, IF horsemeat were grassfed and free from what racing and the show world pump into them, I'd eat it. I'd certainly feed it to my RAW eating dogs.
Keeping slaughter in the US allows us to fight for better standards of care. IMO people are spending too much energy on fighting the idea of slaughter than they are in changing the way horses are treated, ie transport, care, how the horse is killed. IS captive bolt actually the most effective method?

[oleos93]

I think the point is also that American's that love the horse are not putting up a great fight for the cow, sheep or pig that gets shipped in the same manner because we really don't care as much.

I think the point is if we are going to make it about the treatment during transport then we need to fight for them all, not just the horse. I find it very hypocritical.

[Crystal]

horse meat will not be a priority to US based families anyway.. It will be exported. $40 per pound horse meat is not on the American Grocery shopping list..

Regulate it, and ship it. Less horses - less of a problem.

[ArchDandy]

I don't get my beef from commercial producers, I stand by my reasons for not eating horsemeat due to chemical injections- my beef comes from a local organic farmer, and those cows don't get all that crap- just eat grass/ hay, make babies, then die and are eaten, all very simple.

[ratherrapid]

Totally for the slaughter of horses being kept in the USA.
I have no issue with it. None of my horses will ever end up at slaughter, BUT that's my choice.
As a Primal eater, IF horsemeat were grassfed and free from what racing and the show world pump into them, I'd eat it. I'd certainly feed it to my RAW eating dogs.
Keeping slaughter in the US allows us to fight for better standards of care. IMO people are spending too much energy on fighting the idea of slaughter than they are in changing the way horses are treated, ie transport, care, how the horse is killed. IS captive bolt actually the most effective method?

Nicely stated. Tell this to Ray Paulick, Bo Derek, et. al. Is it an utter travesty what these unknowing folks have done to horses. If the issue is human slaughter and transport, how about dealing with those issues would be myQ.

[photofinish]

For the most par, I have found NM's governor to be a tough lady and pretty fair. First politician in a long time I actually like. Then, she has to come out guns-a-blzin' against the Roswell slaughterhouse and I lose some faith in her cmmon sense . I cannot help but wonder, however, if her stance is more of a political necessity after NM got extra special attention in the NY Times article about how horrible the racing industry is?

I have found this state's attitude about animals in general to be a study in statewide bi-polarism. On the one hand there is the old rancher view of animals that reads "Take care of as much as you have to to get your use out of 'em. If they need more care than they have use, kill 'em. Too old to work, kill 'em." BUT, there is this huge, vocal group of PETA types who are everywhere and seem to own a TV station or 2. In Albuquerque it is against the law to leave your dog outside with an unheated dog house if it is below 30deg F. Not only do offenders get a citation and their dog impounded, they generally make the 7o'clock News! The News? For not having your dog inside???

I woud suspect these folks are big pushers behind the "No SlaughterHouse" campaign. The rescue quoted was from CO, but it seems all the NM rescues are "FULL". At least they were 3 years ago (when hay cost 1/2 as much as it does now) when I needed a home for a 3yr old that needed a couple months of rest (pulled a suspensory) then would make a dandy trail horse. Really cute little horse, decent disposition, owner was willing to keep the horse for a month, then haul him to the rescue (ANY of them),then sign the horse over to them. Nope, sorry, no room at the Inn... But God forbid we slaughter them here, soooo much bette the trailer rides into Mexico, because those guys down there have "so much" , compassion for an animal....