Why not eat horses?, part 2

[urbpan]

I thought I'd just posted about the horse slaughter issue, but apparently it's been a full year. The link in the previous sentence leads to my post about an email (from an animal protection organization I'm interested in), asking us all to lobby congress to make it illegal to slaughter horses for food. Apparently the House of Representatives has approved a bill to this effect.


My feeling is, if there are thousands of horses that need to be destroyed, why not sell the meat for food? One zoo director has become involved, as well, because the big cats that live in zoos eat mainly processed horse meat.

If you are against factory farming, or slaughterhouses, you must be against them for all animals. There is no important neurological difference between a cow and a horse that makes slaughter less humane for horses. Any opposition to horse slaughter comes from a sentimental attachment to one species over another, and is not logically consistent, and in my opinion, is basically indefensible.

There's also a xenophobic aspect to the bill: Americans don't eat horses, but the French and Japanese do. This is why the slaughter of cows will never be made illegal in the U.S.--We'd all starve! But since those weird foreigners are the dirty horse-eaters, why not ban horse slaughter?

I do not support factory farms, but I am in favor of humane slaughter. Treating animals like food does not bother me. Treating animals like some kind of inanimate raw material, like iron ore or something, that bothers me. Farm animals should be respected, their lives should not be misery, and we should expect meat to be expensive in exchange for treating our animals well.

Comments

[candent.livejournal.com]

Don't worry, I'm sure the Senate will shoot it down.

[kryptyd.livejournal.com]

Wow, I agree with everything you just said there. I don't personally treat animals like food (I'm vegan) but I think that the farming industry would be a lot closer to acceptable if more meat eaters were as thoughtful and sensible as you.

[candent.livejournal.com]

There is no important neurological difference between a cow and a horse that makes slaughter less humane for horses.

Don't you know how it works here? If the animal is asthetically pleasing, than it can't be eaten.

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

I ate horsemeat as a child, which means I've already thought about this. I think it's more respectful to eat what you kill, and it's clear that since we do have herds of wild horses, they will have to be killed sometimes (their populations can't be regulated by natural forces).

I remember my father telling me that the prohibition against eating horse derives from attempts to drive out pre-Christian European religions, among whom the horse was a holy creature whose consumption was connected to various celebrations. He said that you could see where the holiness of horses and the ritual eating of horses had been by seeing where modern people are disgusted by the idea of eating them.

For myself, I won't eat primates, and I won't eat marine mammals,because the former are my family and the latter are family by adoption. There are other things I don't eat because I don't have the taste for them (most invertebrates). Somewhere I picked up the way to say it: "I do not know how to eat this thing." But marine mammals and primates, I refuse to learn how to eat them under any but the most dire circumstances.

[ms-cantrell.livejournal.com]

yeah, i thought we'd just been over this, too, but it has been a while. also, wasn't the legilsation a year ago about catching wild horses and slaughtering them if they weren't 'adopted'? - that one actually passed, because it was piggy-backed onto something having to do with energy or military.

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

evidently a whole shitload of countries eat horse meat - wikipedia has a great entry on horse meat, very enlightening.

the debate on the subject in pet_debate was pretty infuriating because people can't decide which aspect of it is more horrifying to them. it seems like, for the most part, people are complaining about inhumane slaughter but, shit, that happens in every freaking slaughterhouse in this fine country. horses aren't the exception to the rule.

[by-steph.livejournal.com]

Much of the push to slaughter horses is coming from ranchers that want to use public lands to overgraze their cattle on. This is the same reason the bison from Yellowstone are killed. There has been no documented case of brucellosis transmission between bison and cattle. For the most part it is not an inability of the land to support the horses or the bison. The land cannot support the destructive cattle industry and horses and bison. The slaughter of wild horses is not what I would consider humane. They can be shot in the wild, or, they can be rounded up from the wild and trucked in to slaughter houses. To manage an animal at a slaughterhouse that is not accustomed to humans will not be a humane death if you consider a reduction of stress one of the components of humane slaughter. This push to end horse slaughter didn't come about because people were upset that old horses were being sent to slaughter. This came about because of the Burns (R-MT) Amendment to the Wild and Free-roaming Horses and Burros Act. If it is thought that bleeding hearts have gone overboard, then The Man needs to stop doing $hit that people will react to. The argument of not being a hypocrite in killing some animals and loving others does not need to go the direction of Lets Kill All Animals For Food. It's like the Feminist objection to having a door held open for a woman. Instead of a world where everyone lets doors slam other people in the face to uphold Equality, how about a world in which everyone holds a door open for everyone else.

[stonelizard.livejournal.com]

This bill came out of nowhere and is causing a great deal of bickering on various zookeeping forums which, alas, has also degenerated into a "mightier than thou" attitude on vegetarianism....
I am all for it. at the end of the day if we did not have a way of moving on old horses then we would be Losing a lot of money, time and fieldspace. Its no real difference to cattle, sheep, goats and the other species we eat. People are geting rather upset about this one as horses are a more attractive species.
At the end of the day, if it is done humanely then I have no huge problem with culling horses - I think I would rather eat horsemeat than chicken. Personal opinion, of course

And on a practical view - so many zoos in the UK and abroad rely on cheap horsemeat to feed their animals. I believe in some species it is even more nutritionally sound than beef. A lot of animal organisations would suffer without this source of meat.
My 2 Cents

[miz-geek.livejournal.com]

We had horse burgers the last time we were in France, just to be able to say we had and to see what they tasted like. They tasted like meat.

I think the power of cultural and social norms is amazing.

[tsunami-ryuu.livejournal.com]

because the big cats that live in zoos eat mainly processed horse meat.

Having done a project at the local zoo with some of the big cats, I concur that this is very true. I don't know what zoos would do if horsemeat were banned from the market. Beef seems far too expensive an alternative.

Good post; I agree with your points. Hopefully this bill won't get through the senate.

[bluelinegoddess.livejournal.com]

As a horse owner/,over, I am fully AGAINST THE BAN.

Every day I can visit a dozen horse rescue sites and see horses they rescued that have been neglected, starved, what have you. Then they have the "feedlot rescues", which are horses they buy from the killer buyers, usually right as their herd is being loaded up to be shipped to slaughter. They always say "we can't save them all".

So what the hell do they think will happen when there is no slaughter? If they can't save them all now, do they think all the excess horses will magically disappear once the ban takes effect?

Too many idiot politicians voted on emotions (which I guess is always the case) rather than logic.

I blame the showing industry for creating so many unwanted horses - it's not unheard of for a person who shows to buy a new horse every year because they don't want to take the time and effort to get one horse to the higher levels - it's so much easier to buy one ready made. Ugh.