Burger King drops firm which supplied horse meat

[onehandle]

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - Burger King, one of the most popular fast-food chains in Britain and Ireland, said on Thursday it had stopped using one of the firms caught up in the scandal of supplying grocers with beef that contained horse meat.

The British food industry has been rocked by the revelation last week that retailers including market leader Tesco and smaller chains Aldi, Lidl and Iceland had sold beef products that contained horse meat.

The scandal has left Ireland's 2 billion euros ($2.6 billion) beef industry, which accounts for 21 percent of all of the country's food and drink exports, reeling from the first major knock-on effect from the discovery.

Food safety experts say horse meat poses no added health risks to consumers, but the discovery has raised concerns about the food supply chain and the ability to trace meat ingredients.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/burger-king-drops-firm-supplied-horse-meat-110757042--finance.html

---

Imagine what slips into your burgers over here where we have a fraction of the food monitoring.

[CJCRANE]

1. Maybe I shouldn't say this but...I'm wondering if horse meat tastes nicer...

I've never tried it...deliberately at least.

[samsingh]

3. why would you want to?

[CJCRANE]

5. I eat meat, so why is a horse more worthy (of being left alone) than a cow?

Why do more ducks roam free than chickens?

Which animals we choose to eat is pretty arbitrary.

[samsingh]

6. i ate meat and now i'm a vegetarian so i guess i'm in favor

of reducing the set of animals being eaten.

i was just curious

[CJCRANE]

9. I'm in favor of vegetarianism, but I'm not a good cook

so I just grab what I know and what I like...burgers, hot dogs, chicken drumsticks, pepperoni pizzas etc.

Hopefully one day I'll figure out how to excite my taste buds and fill my stomach without causing suffering to other animals. We shall see...

[samsingh]

12. there's a lot of choices now adays and cooking is not that difficult

[dixiegrrrrl]

23. check out crock pot vegetarian recipes....

I just found out how to make great "baked" potatoes in a crock pot, to save on oven heat.
Googled around and came up with some marvelous recipes, no "cooking" so to speak, the pot does it all.

[RebelOne]

50. Ditto here from another vegetarian. n/t

[LoveIsNow]

52. I'm sorry, but that is sumply illogical

By cutting out horse, you only increase the demand for cow or sheep or some other animal, and are just transferring the death from one species to another.

[Sunlei]

33. because horses are companion animals, plus the common drugs are proven to cause disease in humans.

[yellowcanine]

4. Morally I don't see the difference between eating a hamburger made of beef or horse meat.

If one eats meat already, how does one make the case against horse meat?

[CJCRANE]

7. I agree...

maybe esthetically a horse looks nicer, but that's a matter of opinion. I don't know if a horse is more intelligent than a cow...but a lot of people eat pigs which are apparently very intelligent so where do we draw the line?

[La Lioness Priyanka]

29. there isn't morally but horses are prettier and we are far more sentimental

that we are rational

[yellowcanine]

31. An Angus bull thinks an Angus cow is pretty.

Just sayin'.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

32. angus bulls dont make laws though :)

just sayin'.

[tabasco]

45. How do you feel about cannibalism?

[La Lioness Priyanka]

47. cannibalism and eating monkeys is a very bad idea, healthwise

most species dont cannibalize and most animals do not eat carnivores (besides fish). i think sticking to natural rules about eating has merit.

also protecting one species by not murdering is evolutionary intelligent.

although how you draw cannibalism into a horses and cows argument, is pretty specious

[wordpix]

48. I don't know---my Jersey cow was gorgeous with her big brown eyes & sweet disposition

[Sunlei]

44. If you can't see the moral difference how about the knowledge that many common horse meds are-

class one carcinogens.

Definition. a substance which causes cancer.

[Travis_0004]

51. I would agree with you, if the meat was properly labeled.

If BK wanted to offer horse burgers, I wouldn't have a problem with it. I might even try it sometime. I think the bigger issue is that horse meat was labeled as cow meat.

[Retrograde]

14. Based on my one experience

of eating horsemeat, I thought it was a little sweeter and a lot leaner than cow. But that was in France, where they can make a lot of things taste good.

The reasons for not eating horse are mainly cultural, maybe because the horse had other uses back when (although a recent compendium on Italian cuisine contains some recipes for what to do with an old donkey).

[UnseenUndergrad]

16. Not to mention all the drugs used.

the quality of meat, the humane-ness of slaughter and transport and various other factors outside culture.

In places like Mongolia (and maybe France and Germany), I would assume that the Horse-meat is more-or-less organic and a fair bit more humane than the horror stories cropping up in North America.

[freshwest]

17. My high school was caught substituting horse meat in hamburgers. It doesn't taste the same.

It has a sweet taste and it was reddish in color. If you ever opened up a can of this:



http://www.brandlandusa.com/2011/06/02/hills-horse-meat/

You know what it smells and looks like. In the fifties this was in supermarkets and my stepmother bought it for the dog. At the time, I didn't think about it, but I'd never buy it since. France and a few other countries are consumers of horse meat:

...A large majority of the 65,000 horses that are slaughtered each year in the United States are shipped to Japan, Europe, and Quebec for consumption by consumers...

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/who-eats-horse-meat.html

[Sunlei]

34. they don't use horsemeat in dogfood any more because the ivermection common drug killed dogs

some breeds are hyper-sensitive to ivermection, collies and greyhounds are 2 of those breeds. A couple racing tracks lost all their dogs.

By the way no horses are slaughtered in the usa, that was shut down years ago. Canada also refuses american horses as the UK has improved acceptance of Canadian meat imports.

Mexico has no real inforced regulations, they don't care whats in their mix of pink 'beef' slime, 'beef protein' mixer..let the 3rd world countries beware.

If a company sells their product as beef, the DNA test should show 100% beef only.

[freshwest]

36. Agreed on the RX. I mentioned the fifties. But horse slaughter will resume in the USA:

Obama, Congress restore horse-slaughter industry

...The domestic ban didn’t end horse slaughter but instead shifted the site of butchery to Mexico and Canada - which meant increased abuse or neglect as the horses were shipped out of the country and beyond the reach of U.S. law...

All sides agreed that the backdoor ban was a failure. A June report by the Government Accountability Office, Congress‘ chief investigative branch, said the ban depressed prices for horses in the U.S. and led to a surge in reports of neglect or abuse as owners of older horses had no way of disposing of them, short of selling them to “foreign slaughtering facilities where U.S. humane slaughtering protections do not apply...”

The move got a tepid stamp of approval from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which said it had always been worried about the way Congress went about its initial ban. PETA said it predicted that horses would be shipped to foreign slaughterhouses...

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/nov/30/obama-congress-restore-us-horse-slaughter-industry/?page=all

Despite the moves by T. Boone Pickins and others to stop American horse slaughtering in the last decade, the reasons for resumption was reconsidering in line of these findings:

Transportation of horses for slaughter

The Department of Transportation has officers at the enforcement points to ensure proper transportation of horses, but has no jurisdiction beyond transportation matters. Horses that are severely lame or disabled are not accepted at the plants. In 2008, Animals' Angels received over 900 pages of documents and photographs from the United States Department of Agriculture taken during part of 2005 at the Beltex horse slaughter plant in Texas. The document revealed an appalling number of incidences and an equally appalling degree of suffering sustained by horses, including hundreds of photographs that graphically depict horses with open fractures, legs missing, battered and bloody faces, eyeballs dangling and what appears to be horses left to bleed to death.[46]

A 1998 survey commissioned by the USDA/APHIS to determine where welfare problems occur during horse transport to slaughter found severe welfare problems in 7.7% of the transported horses, with a majority from conditions caused by owner neglect or abuse rather than transportation. The report recommended fining individuals who transport horses unfit for travel.[12] However, despite those recommendations, in an April 2011 Report on Equine transport violations, of 458 violators and 280 cases reported since February 1, 2002, only 51 of these 458 violators have received fines. Total fines assessed were $781,350.00. The highest fines imposed were $230,000.00 (Charles Carter, CO), $162,000.00 (Leroy Baker, OH) and $77,825.00 (Bill Richardson, TX) It is unknown at this point how much of these assessed fines actually has been paid. Violators continue to operate business as usual.

The abuse horses suffer throughout the slaughter pipeline, from feedlot to auction to transport to the kill process itself has been widely documented by Animals Angels in this 30-page report. Findings included dangerously overcrowded pens, aggressive, rough handling, equine suffering that is observed and tolerated, transport with no rest, no water and no food for 28 hours by law, for longer by actual practice, no food, water, shelter for extended periods - at auction, during transport, at feedlots and export pens, transport in double decked trailers between auctions and feedlots only tall enough for cattle, and injuries untreated.

On February 22, 2007, Rep. Robert Molaro introduced a bill, HB1711, to the Illinois General Assembly to prohibit the transportation of horses into the State for the sole purpose of slaughter for human consumption.

There are US Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulations governing the transportation of horses,[47] but the USDA has said it does not have the resources to enforce the regulation.[48] In 2009, a bill which would have prohibited interstate transport of live horses in double-deck horse trailers passed out of committee in the House of Representatives and placed on the Union Calendar.[48] The bill died at the end of the 111th United States Congress.

On July 9, 2011 Sen Mary Landrieu, (D - LA) and co-sponsor Sen Lindsey graham (R-SC) has introduced Senate Bill S.1176 The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act of 2011 to amend the Horse Protection Act (15 U.S.C. ch.44) to prohibit the shipping, transporting, moving, delivering, receiving, possessing, purchasing, selling, or donation of horses and other equines to be slaughtered for human consumption.[49]

On November 18, 2011, the ban on the slaughter of horses for meat was lifted as part of the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2012.[50]
[edit]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_slaughter#Transportation_of_horses_for_slaughter

The last paragraph there refers to the bill signed by Obama because of the hideous abuses these animals suffer. The Wiki entry is full of horrible practices and figures, and the various groups opposing and supporting slaughtering horses. And horse slaughtering plants are planned right now, with foreign investors:

In March 2012 Wyoming state Representative Sue Wallis proposed building a new horse meat processing plant in Missouri or Arkansas. She claimed to have $6 million to invest and support by Belgian horse meat buyers.[38] In May of 2012, Wallis sought local investors in Wyoming to help finance a plant estimated to help finance the plant, which she said could cost between $2 million and $6 million which would process up to 200 horses a day for sale abroad and to ethnic markets within the U.S.[39]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_slaughter#Transportation_of_horses_for_slaughter

I abhor this industry but I am in no way involved in the workings of livestock management. I consider the words of the PETA representative relevant:

“A law doesn’t change what’s in people’s hearts, and if business people view horses as commodities, ignoring their sensitive natures in favor of the few dollars that their flesh might bring, the horses were sunk from the start,” said David Perle, a spokesman for the group. “To reduce suffering, there should be a ban on the export of live horses, even if that means opening slaughterhouses in the U.S. again. But the better option is to ban slaughter in the U.S. and ban the export of live horses so that no one is slaughtering America’s horses.”

[Sunlei]

37. I don't think it will.

Slaughterhouse sue (the republican that removed the line at the very last second from the bill Obama signed) Is who has been trying for years! to open again a location. Each time we've gotten the county, the town, even a small town to zone out allowing horse slaughter in their area. The 'unwanted horses problem' is a media lie started by her. Sue Wallis is a liar. She wants to open a charity, take gov. money and tax free and then sell horsemeat.She's about the only person still living in the world God should strike dead.

mentioning the reduction of shipping distance is not valid. When beltex in texas was slaughtering horses for the (gone now) Belgin market, they were shipping in horses from california, mexico and canada. The information "900 pages of documents" was from a FOIA request 10 years ago. And that's part of what shut down that industry in the USA, recently Canada will no longer accept American horses. Now it's just mexico a country that doesn't care much what they have in their food or what they sell to 3rd world countries.



Notice that peta says this- "But the better option is to ban slaughter in the U.S. and ban the export of live horses so that no one is slaughtering America’s horses.”

[freshwest]

39. If you have links to what you say, I'll edit. Until then, IDK that there is going to be and end.

Last edited Sat Jan 26, 2013, 01:30 AM - Edit history (1)

Are your sources from Europe and Canada? Please provide them so I can ask someone here at DU that edits Wiki to change the entry. It would be good to end this practice. By the way, I love your take on the GOP from WY. What a piece of work she is. I hope all their schemes flop miserably. As far as stopping this altogther, I'd love to see a more humane and ethical system to end it and find this abhorent. I am not that much of a practical person on this, though - those who live in rural areas doubtless see the whole differently. You are a person after my own heart. Thanks, Sunlei.

[Sunlei]

43. so many small republicans all bleeding americas fed/state $ into their pockets, doubt that willstop.

It's the most local of our Gov. who seem to be the most corrupt, there is no oversight. Thank God for the internet, it's a great tool to expose their schemes. Many local poliicans have their own unique way to profit off americans state/federal taxpayer money. Wallis and her group, along with a couple other politicans some in our DOI and the BLM use the system for their own profit. They have done this for a very long time, I know people who have dedicated their life vs these people and the, very small issue of 2,000 horses per state not having a humane end of life. I'm rural most of my life and the majority of horse,dog and other companion animal owners do not send their aged companions to slaughter. we also have a stolen horse problem in the usa. currently 50k horses a year are reported stolen and never seen again. Up to half the 100k horses sent to slaughter each year may be stolen. That's why I say the numbers Wallis pushes in her paid media campaigns, he thousands of 'press releases' are just flat out lies.

Here's a few current links, there are so many, thousands- if you google horse slaughter you could spend a lifetime catching up.
http://canadianhorsedefencecoalition.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/pasture-to-plate.pdf
http://canadianhorsedefencecoalition.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/proof_of_cfia_failure_dec_11_2012.pdf

many federal court cases vs DOI and BLM http://wildhorseeducation.org/slaughter-investigation/

website saves proof of about 10 years of the 'battle' http://www.kaufmanzoning.net/



by the way something very,very current is why Salazar has to step down in march. just recently a 'known' kill buyer (dealer in meat horses) was caught with 'sent to slaughter' 100s of americas gov. property, the publics wild horses. The animals by federal law, were never to be sent to slaughter. The man caught is Salazars next door ranch neighbor. Our gov. spends about 3k per animal to remove them from our pubic lands. Somehow his next door neighbor!! got many shipments (free!) from the federal mandated safe long term holding areas and he resold those horses to slaughter in mexico. even with the brands the blm places on each animal, the state brand inspectors were instructed to ignore blm brands and record the animals as unbranded.

I understand our President is one person vs a federal and state gov.s flush with politicans with decades of personal profit off our taxpayer money. He can't do everything, but I think he has noticed the leeches bleeding Americas taxpayer money and slowly shuts their profit doors. Salazar ('The horse slaughter Tzar') gone is another good change.

This is an issue close to my heart, horses are not food animals. I can't afford to save the world but I try to back and help in as many little ways as I can. Sometimes there is victory and some small justice. One of them is my blm branded wild horse, now 14years bought for 10 dollars! from the auction slaughter pen.

Here is another victory and justice brought about by a large group of Americans including many good citizens of Nebraska (this man got hundreds of almost free horses from the blm, that cost taxpayers 3k to round up)
he starved them to death. http://dcs-inmatesearch.ne.gov/Corrections/InmateDisplayServlet?DcsId=71105&showInmateImage=true

I think I'm done with this topic in DU, sorry to be so wordie. People like wallis/ horse eaters are so evil it sucks the life out of a person to even think about them.

[freshwest]

46. Me, too, painful. Thanks for your work and knowledge!

[Sunlei]

49. Thanks to you too! by the way Senator Warren, Congresswoman Pelosi & other Politicans have helped.

I know President Obama is a greenhorn about animals, and a first time family dog owner aswell.

I trust he listens to these good politicans and understands more about the dirty tricks- re changing/removing a sentence from a bill, 'faking' official reports, by now.

[progressoid]

19. It...

has a little more kick than beef.

[Drunken Irishman]

27. Hay there.

[awoke_in_2003]

20. I have no problem...

with people eating horse, but there should be truth in labeling

[T_i_B]

25. That pretty much hits the nail on the hear.

The issue is that you expect beef burgers be be made of beef.

I've eaten Zebra sausages before now so I don't think I'd have any problems with horse meat.

[Sunlei]

35. if you like bloody mushie 'liverlike' meat :(

[samsingh]

2. good

[alp227]

8. Next drop the firms that provide factory farmed abused animals.

[valerief]

10. Pink slime vs. horsemeat. Hmm. Which to choose? Which to choose?

Neither. Dump beef.

[silvershadow]

11. Aldi, you say? Wonder if some of it made it's way here? I sure would like to know.

That might explain all the horses asses I see.

[dipsydoodle]

13. I'm not sure it was actual horsemeat

Later reports here in the UK said it involved additives containing horse dna the origin of which remains under investigation. It was cheap supermarket beafburgers which contained a higher percentage of additives. As such Burger King have put their hands up to using inferior burg ers anyway. That may not have dawned on them. Dummies.

[Sunlei]

38. The 'beef' additives also had pork dna, a lot of it. Wonder if they tested for human DNA?

Wouldn't put it past some pink slime foreign prison labor company to mix in fresh dead humans to make their daily 'quota' of product.

[harmonicon]

15. Now where am I supposed to get my horse burgers? Thanks, jerks. (nt)

[Flashmann]

18. The last time I had a whopper

I made the Rodney Dangerfield joke,that the meat patties still had whip marks from the jockey......

Guess it's no joke.......

[yellowcanine]

28. You have to wonder about a restaurant with "Whopper" as the name of its main entree.

I mean, "whopper" is another name for a lie. Just sayin'.

[The Wizard]

21. They could use

kangaroo meat and call it the Home of the Hopper. Burgeroos too.

[blkmusclmachine]

22. Have It Your Neigh.

[Earth_First]

24. LMAO!

[lonestarnot]

41. Do you get a paper hat wit dat?

[ucrdem]

54. whoppa gangnum style

[Kalidurga]

26. So that's why they call it the Rodeo Burger...

But, seriously if this bothers people they really should reconsider the whole meat eating thing.

[laureloak]

30. Good for Burger King!

Burger King did the right thing when they learned that a supplier may be using an inferior product, yet the posts on this thread critize Burger King! For what? Doing the right thing? What did the other victims do in response to the news????

[AlphaCentauri]

40. Now where am I going to be able to get juicy horse burger?

I have ate turkey, pork, chicken, duck, deer, lamb, gout, rabbit, quail, beef, all sea animals.... I feel like I've been deprived from horse an donkey meat

[lonestarnot]

42. I don't see elephant on your list and what is gout? I thought that was a disease.

[d_r]

53. I'm thinking

There's probably a lot of stuff not as good as horsemeat in burgers.

[Nye Bevan]

55. If you are hungry enough to eat a horse.....

head to Burger King (but only for a limited time).