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Famous Death Row Last Meals
In January, my boyfriend and I went back to his old neighborhood in France (he spent a year teaching at a university in Nice despite not knowing French, but I digress). As we passed the local butcher shop, the word "Cheval" was posted in huge letters on the plate-glass window.Because I didn't speak any French, my mind starting racing. Cheval, cheval, that sounds like ... chivalry. Oh no, I thought, are they butchering knights?!
No, worse: they were butchering horses.
It turns out that horse is popular in much of the world. Much of Europe and western Asia eats horse, it's big in Japan, and on our continent, the Quebecois pick up the Anglophones' slack.
While Americans don't consume horsemeat, Americans do produce horsemeat ... for the Japanese and Europeans to consume.
Is this simply a case of "different strokes for different folks?" Or is American involvement in the horsemeat industry an ethical crisis, as some people believe?
One thing is for sure: I ate neither cheval nor chivalry.
For more information on the subject, check out our other post about the issue's legislation.
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5-18-2006 @2:29PM Rob Brooks-Bilson said... I had horsemeat (stewed) when I was in Malta and found it to be ok. As I understand it, horse can be quite tough, so it's often slow cooked in stews or braised to tenderize.
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5-18-2006 @3:06PM Terri Wheeler said... The US involvement in the slaughter of horses for French and Belgian dinner plates is cruel and inhumane - both in the manner of transport to the slaughter houses and in the manner of slaughter. We, as a society, should be ashamed of ourselves for allowing this to continue. Large companies and the general public are now beginning to support the purchase of eggs for cage-free chickens because its more humane- let's further show our humanity and support the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (S. 1915/H.R. 503) to save the more than 90,000 horses that are killed each year.
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5-18-2006 @3:12PM Mike said... Why is this a controversy? It's quite normal in parts of the world to eat horses, as well as animals that many Americans consider to be pets. Why is it okay in your mind to eat a cow but not a horse?
n.b. I'm vegetarian, but having been raised in Europe, I've eaten horse, veal, foie gras, etc in the past.
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5-18-2006 @3:29PM Ari said... As a vegetarian, I find it quite funny that people have this ethical dilemma about eating horses. Why is it perfectly fine (and delicious) to eat some animals but not others? We're not talking about insects or things without brains - we're talking about various types of large mammals. This isn't to be preachy, but c'mon folks... if you can't rationalize eating horses, how are cows ok?
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5-18-2006 @3:52PM Terri Wheeler said... I certainly didn't write (or read) anywhere that it was ok to eat cows and not horses. Its not ok to eat anything or keep anything if we cannot care for them humanely, from start to finish. That goes for chickens, pigs, cows and horses. Pigs are incredibly intelligent animals and the conditions under which they are kept in factory farming is horrific. And, if you think it doesn't affect the meat goes on your table, think again.
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5-18-2006 @4:32PM Guy said... Terri:
If that ban you were proposing was for the humane slaughter of all animals, then I'd support it. But it's an outright species-specific ban on production. A ban should only be for something that would damage the species as a whole (endangered) or harmful to the consumer (tainted cancerous meats). If I want to eat something that won't damage the species and isn't harmful to me, I don't see why it shouldn't be fair game. Otherwise, you're trying to impose your ethnocentric views on the rest of us.
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5-18-2006 @4:51PM Crosius said... This seems like another case of "Cute/nice animals shouldn't be eaten." I've been around horses that are neither, so this "Cute/Nice" appellation is clearly a PR coup by horses - just like the fluffy-tailed tree-rats.
Any animal domesticated for the farm is ultimately fair game, in the literal sense of the term.
If it's a farm animal, it's been bred to do work and/or become stew.
Horses are farm animals, ergo they can be eaten.
They aren't particularly tasty, though, IMO. In a free market, demand would be low unless cost & poverty conspire.
In any case, where you draw your "food / not food" line is a personal choice. A certain amount of death and exploitation of other organisms is inevitable - even if it's just the millions of E. coli you annihilate in your own guts.
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5-18-2006 @6:15PM Finished.Law.School said... Terri Wheeler:
You seem to be quite the Nazi when it comes to what people should be eating. You appear to promote an overall ban on foods that people eat on a regular basis. You need to spend some time in North Korea and other interesting places where a choice of what is to eat (much less a choice of what to think) is more limited. Maybe then you will have more respect for a person's right to raise, kill and eat any animal.
Extremists like you serve no purpose in society but you are entitled to your beliefs...
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5-18-2006 @6:53PM shar said... There was a joke about airhead girlfriend who didn't want his boyfriend to eat rabbit, and when the boyfriend asked why, she answered (in high squealing voice) : "because it's SO CUTE~!"
and we see fugly cows and chickens sulked in background.
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5-18-2006 @7:54PM James said... "For every animal you don't eat I'm going to eat three"
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5-18-2006 @9:13PM Sir Not Appearing in this Blog said... Uh...yeah. "Controversy". Riiiiight. Isn't it great when one person says other people should live according to his beliefs?
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5-19-2006 @1:44PM Liz said... Number 7, I'm not sure how you had your horsemeat prepared but I've had absolutely fantastic meals with it. I'm an American now living in Quebec and I was very shocked when I first found out that it's legal to eat horsemeat in Canada (it's where some of the American horsemeat goes but this never gets into articles for some reason), but I tried and it and found it to be quite good. For me, it's something to eat occasionally, like steak or lamb.
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5-25-2006 @2:15PM Linda Cunningham said... To kill and EAT horses is disgusting! it would be like eating "Secretariat" and "Trigger"!!! To look into the horses of a "Pet" and then eat it is like cannibalism! The French also eat "Rats" cooked many different ways--yuk, does that mean we follow suit?
The Koreans kill dogs and cats and eat them--another disgusting thing! Cats are "boiled alive" to supposedly extract "medicinal juices" in Korea---ALL of the above practives are sick!!!Vegetables lokk better and better all the time--this planet is far to focused on MEAT! Did you know that pigs are more intellegent than dogs? Did you ever look closely at the eys of a pig--they most resemble man! Try it the next time you visit a county fair--the tortuous ways
that mankind treats gentle animals is horrific!
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5-25-2006 @2:15PM Linda Cunningham said... To kill and EAT horses is disgusting! it would be like eating "Secretariat" and "Trigger"!!! To look into the horses of a "Pet" and then eat it is like cannibalism! The French also eat "Rats" cooked many different ways--yuk, does that mean we follow suit?
The Koreans kill dogs and cats and eat them--another disgusting thing! Cats are "boiled alive" to supposedly extract "medicinal juices" in Korea---ALL of the above practives are sick!!!Vegetables lokk better and better all the time--this planet is far to focused on MEAT! Did you know that pigs are more intellegent than dogs? Did you ever look closely at the eys of a pig--they most resemble man! Try it the next time you visit a county fair--the tortuous ways
that mankind treats gentle animals is horrific!
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5-25-2006 @2:17PM Max Gordon said... And what do you do with the 90000 horses that you would save each year????
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5-25-2006 @2:18PM Bill Tatu said... Anyone who has ever been near a farm knows that ,hygenically speaking, horses are eminently cleaner than cows,pigs or chickens.
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5-25-2006 @2:21PM George said... The navy served horse meat in bootcamp in 1955 at Great Lakes Training Center. You didn't have to eat it but they wouldn't give you anything to replace it.
I ate it because they didn't give me enought to eat at any time in boot camp. One of the big time hambuger joints was accused of putting too much horse meat in their ham bugers years ago in KY
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5-25-2006 @2:23PM George said... I am not going to type all of that again
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5-25-2006 @2:25PM Peggy said... I ate horse meat in France 40 years ago, and found it to be less desirable than cow meat, or pig meat for that matter. Is it any more inhumane to eat horse meat? I really do love most animals, but feel that unless one is a vegetarian, you can choose from any available meat you wish to eat. In Asian countries they eat Monkey Meat...UGH !!!!!
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5-25-2006 @2:28PM john said... It's very common in Canada as well. Have friends that use it a sandwich meat and it's part of their regular diet. But then they'll eat Racoons, Squirel, or just about anything else. I'll stick with the cow and the chicken!!
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