USDA Considers Reintroducing Horse Slaughter to US (CommonDreams.org)

[King_Klonopin]

One of today's headlines;
link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/03/01-6

Who, do they suppose, is going to eat the stuff?
Poor, desperate folks who can't afford beef?
All of us who ate "pink slime" unwittingly?

"LET THEM EAT HORSE!"

Solyent Green is people!!!!!

[theKed]

1. Likely not

Given the relative scarcity of horse to beef, it would be a more expensive, premium cut of meat.

[tclambert]

5. The article say many of the horses could cost less than beef.

Those bred for other purposes originally and after their rodeo career ends, for instance, sending them to the slaughterhouses. The problem there is they give these "sport" horses drugs and medications not approved for food animals, which could then enter the food stream.

Still, if labeled clearly, and inspected thoroughly, I could see horse meat establishing a niche market, like venison, or elk, or caribou.

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. "if labeled clearly, and inspected thoroughly,"

See no reason for horse meat to be treated any differently than beef, pork and chicken here.
Which means any drugs would NOT be labled, and inspection would be as shortchanged as any other meat in this country.
Which is why Europe, esp. France, refuses to buy horsemeat or hourses for meat, from this country.

[HereSince1628]

26. There's those 'problem' wild horses on leased public lands.

I can easily imagine a push for those to be rounded up and shipped to slaughter for overseas sale.

[tblue]

2. I'm so glad I'm a vegetarian.

I don't want to eat horseys or anything else with a face. For so many reasons. God knows what's in any package of meat.

[fitman]

27. The ban on

slaughtering horses in the US has been tragic... Horses are now starving to death on gov't lands, people with old horses cannot sell them. My wife went to a sale and a guy wanted $1 for his two horses and no one would take them.. People are abandoning horses in state parks because they cannot afford to feed them and no one will take them

Another bad side of the ban is horses are transported to Mexico where they are inhumanely slaughtered. At least in the US the slaughterhouses are overseen by the USDA to make sure the slaughter is humane. The Japanese load them on ships alive and by the time the ship arrives in Japan they are in packaging but the conditions on those ships are horrendous for the horses while still alive.

My wife is a horse veterinarian and the Veterinarians Associations are all 100% for horse slaughter in the US.

[Victor_c3]

3. There is an easy solution to this

don't eat meat and you'll never have to worry about it.

[savebigbird]

10. +1! n/a

[Berlum]

4. GMO Horses soon coming to your dinner plate?

You smelly Proles need to just STFU and place your Trust in Science, Inc. (R).

[fasttense]

6. You do realize that soon labels will NOT have to identify the type of meat

In the product you are buying.

That's really what all the fuss is about. Not so much that people are slaughtering their once beloved pets, and mode of transportation for centuries, and eating them. That's not what the objection is. It's that they passed off horse meat as beef. If you paid the high price for beef and got horse, it makes you feel as if you were cheated by yet another corporation.

So the obvious solution is to stop identifying the type of meat in the food. They could create a label that reads: May contain horse/beef/pork/chicken or other meats not recognized for routine human consumption. That way they could also add dog, cat, rat and even human meat. Horse meat, along with cat, dog, rat and human, have a bad rap. People wouldn't buy them if they knew what kind of meat it was. It's just NOT fair that rat and horse meat are so maligned. So, corporations should not have to identify the type of meat they are using in your lasagna.

Isn't that the same logic behind NOT labeling GMO and pink slime?

[NYC Liberal]

7. So cows, chickens, pigs, lamb, deer are all okay but not horses?

I understand if you're against killing any animal for food; that's one thing. But it doesn't make much sense to be all for slaughtering cows for meat but not horses.

[LWolf]

13. Do you understand

that horses have a relationship with humans that other livestock does not? That they've been our working partners for thousands of years, and that in addition to a working partner, they are also, in most cases, pets?

Do we eat our cats and dogs?

[Zoonart]

17. We don't eat cats or dogs...

But other cultures do. We slaughter a gazillion pigs a year for sweet sweet bacon, yet they are as smart or smarter then dogs. Declaring which animals are okay to eat and which are not is a slippery slope. As a vegetarian of forty years, I can tell you that I do not miss meat at all and I feel great.

[LWolf]

23. So why

don't we eat cats or dogs?

Because we have relationships with them...just like we have relationships with horses.

I don't disagree about your slippery slope. We'd probably be a healthier planet if we didn't eat meat of any kind.

That's not my point here, though.

It's unethical, and immoral, imo, to eat creatures you teach to trust you, that have served you faithfully as working partners for thousands of years.

I don't value human life more than, or less than, other life. I like my dogs, cats, and horses better than I like many, many people.

[Thor_MN]

20. Do you mean to imply that most people in the US have horses for pets?

I seriously doubt that most people in the US have touched a horse, much less ridden one.

I understand your personal attachment, but confusing one's personal experience with "the majority" is a mistake that the conservatives make.

I have ridden horses on several occasions and probably would not choose to eat horse meat. But I do not presume that most people share my experiences, much less opinions. I'm not trying to comment on your opinion, just on how you expressed it.. There have been thousands of years of humans and horses working together, but it's been well over a hundred years since most people have any first hand experience with horses.

[LWolf]

22. No, I mean to imply that

people in the U.S. who have horses have relationships with those horses.

Simple concept that so many don't want to get.

[Thor_MN]

29. OK, I understand now that your "most cases" referred to horses, not humans.

It makes sense, but does not preclude the possibility of horses that were not raised as work animals being raised as a food source. As I said before, I don't think that I would choose to purchase horse meat. But short of declaring them to be persons (I would argue that they are more human than corporations), giving hem a social security number and retirement benefits, I don't that, as a species, one could necessarily distinguish them to be somehow different than other livestock.

[NYC Liberal]

21. Do all people have that "relationship"? No, they do not.

If you do not want your horse to be slaughtered for food, no one is forcing you to.

People have been eating horse meat for tens of thousands of years -- even before beef.

[LWolf]

25. Is there another species

that teaches prey to trust them, to work with them as partners, and then slaughters them? Or is it just people?

In reality, opening the horse meat market in the U.S. would create factory horse farms, just like the beef market, which is unethical. In my opinion.

There would be "two americas" for horses; the more privileged caste would continue to partner with people, the less privileged would be soylent green.

Many of the privileged caste would only be privileged as long as they were young and sound, and instead of being retired after a life of service, they'd be meat.

That's industry. We already have too much industry in the equine world as it is. We don't need more.

[aikoaiko]

9. I'll give it a try. It sounds tasty.

If people mistake it for beef, then it sounds promising.

[James48]

11. Have you done a gallop poll on this? n/t

[Thor_MN]

15. Only in my Neieieighborhood.

[James48]

12. When I was a kid

I remember seeing horse meat in the butcher shop from time to time. It was a "special occasion' sweet meat that was quite desirable.


I don't mind at all if horse makes it's way back to the grocery store. As long as it is properly marked and identified, I see no big deal.

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[LWolf]

14. Along with your dog and cat. nt

[bread_and_roses]

16. To those saying "why not horse - we eat beef, etc."

One of the reasons horse slaughter had such fierce opponents - resulting after long years of effort in the ban - was the pervasive and well-documented abuse and maltreatment of horses during transport and the slaughter process. Horses are not cattle. They are taller and bred for very different temperament. Horses were transported in vehicles designed for transporting cattle, resulting in injury and inhumane conditions during often long transport. They were slaughtered in facilities supposedly designed to be "humane" for cattle slaughter (which may well not be so, but that's a different issue) but which were not designed for the different anatomy of horses, again resulting in grossly cruel treatment. Given the very different attributes for which horses and cattle are bred - horses to be alert, attuned to their environment - I very much doubt that any difference in design of slaughter facilities could ever be "humane."

And anyone considering eating horse meat should think about the simple fact noted above that not being raised for human consumption means the presence of drugs, etc., that were never meant to be ingested by humans.

Nor does it even address the natural (it seems to me) revulsion most people have toward raising an animal as a companion - developing its trust in humans - and then sending it to slaughter. We do not breed and raise cattle, pigs, or chickens as companion animals. (That in isolated incidents they become such are anomalies, which is why they end up in the occasional video on yahoo or wherever.) That some here seem to have no qualms on this point makes me wonder to what degree they are detached from the natural world and their ability to be empathetic toward other sentient life.

The current practice of sending horses to Mexico is not acceptable either. The tales coming out of those slaughterhouses are enough to make you vomit in horror and revulsion. Not only the slaughter of horses but the sale or transport for slaughter elsewhere should be banned in this country.

[reformist2]

18. This horsemeat scare is absurd. Millions of people around the world eat horsemeat.

[Javaman]

19. Meh, for a long time horse meat was used in dog food.

however, if there is a good cut, I'll give it a try.

I would think that the meat would be a little tougher than normal with it's low fat count, but who knows?

I really don't understand the worry, confusion or people being offended by this.

[Recursion]

24. Immigrants and hipsters.

There were some central asian immigrant communities that wanted to be able to buy horsemeat; I don't think anybody's been talking about doing French-style stuff, more's the pity.

Plus, hipster foodies will eat anything.

[FSogol]

28. Thank you for putting Common Dreams.org in the title.

It makes it easier to ignore that nonsense.

[bread_and_roses]

30. The Brutal and Secretive Trade of American Horses Killed For Their Meat - Alternet

http://www.alternet.org/environment/brutal-and-secretive-trade-american-horses-killed-their-meat

I am not excerpting because I am not going to read it -I can't bring myself to, because I've read too much on the subject in past years and a few truly gruesomely horrific snippets here and there recently about the Mexico slaughterhouses. I just can't put myself through any more. It's obvious to me that those above who are making jokes and dismissing the issue as no big deal know absolutely nothing about it. Even most of those from the Equine industry whom I've read who do not oppose slaughter in theory do not defend the unbelievably cruel practices that are widely documented - they just believe the industry can be "better regulated" or some such. Like we're soooo good at that these days!

[proverbialwisdom]

31. ASPCA ACTION ALERT: Congress Moves to Ban Horse Slaughter in the U.S.

http://blog.aspca.org/content/breaking-congress-moves-ban-horse-slaughter-us

Breaking: Congress Moves to Ban Horse Slaughter in the U.S.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013 - 1:30pm
 
Join us in supporting The Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE) Act, introduced in Congress yesterday by Senators Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Representatives Patrick Meehan (R-PA) and Jan Schakowsky (D-IL). This vital legislation will stop the transport of American horses to slaughter in Mexico and Canada, as well as permanently prevent it from occurring here in the United States. Please ask your Members of Congress to cosponsor the bill and help usher it to passage!

We’ve known for years that horse slaughter is an exceptionally cruel practice—whether it happens in the U.S. or elsewhere. Due to their biology and their psychology, horses cannot be slaughtered in a commercial setting without tremendous suffering and fear. 

We also know that horse meat is not even safe to eat! Horses are fed de-wormers and other toxic drugs that can cause terrible reactions—including death—in people who eat their tainted meat. Consumers in the E.U. are just discovering the dangers they have unwittingly been exposed to, and the scandal grows daily.

In spite of this mountain of damning evidence, the USDA is currently processing an application for a horse slaughter operation here in the United States. Roswell, New Mexico, may soon become ground zero for horse suffering.

The ASPCA has worked closely with federal legislators and other advocacy groups to develop the SAFE Act. This bill will stop the pain and the suffering of equines caught up in this grisly business. Please visit the ASPCA Advocacy Center to take action now to urge your U.S. senators and representative to cosponsor the SAFE Act.