"horse meat" news and stories

While it might be OK to eat horse in Europe or Japan, slaughtering horses for human consumption is a no-no in the United States.

But if one Missouri lawmaker has his way, horse-slaughter facilities could re-open in the U.S., a move that has both its supporters and its vocal critics, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and USA Today reported.

Missouri state Rep. Jim Viebrock, R-Republic, introduced the bill earlier this year to allow horse processing plants to open in the Show-Me-State, the papers reported. Pro-slaughter advocates say the move will help the equine industry, hurt by the closure of the country's three horse slaughterhouses. But anti-slaughter groups say it's the recession, not the absence of slaughterhouses, that is hurting horses.

But even if the ban were lifted, would Americans dig in?

Here's the dilemma offered to us by Debra MacKenzie over at the New Scientist: since so many horses are being abandoned now should we slaughter horses for meat as a more humane way of dealing with the issue, or should we just let people deal with their own unwanted horses?

The problem is that horses are expensive, and grain prices are at an all time high at the same time that people's real wages are way down. A lot of horse owners are getting rid of the animals, some by dropping them off (the horses don't know how to live in the wild and will die, possibly by walking across a busy road) and others by just shooting the animals and dumping them illegally. As of now, it's difficult to get horses slaughtered in the US, and the Humane Society wants to make it illegal to transport them to Canada or Mexico for that purpose.

So what do you think? Apparently, the rest of the world doesn't have a problem eating horse meat. Should Americans be more open to the possibility of eating horse if it really were the most humane thing to do?

I was going to say, "a hot dog made out of horse meat? Gah!" But then I thought, who the hell knows what's in the hot dogs that we eat now? Snouts, intestines, whatever. Maybe horse meat isn't too weird after all.

Esquire's Greg Lindsay gives us the scoop - from the horse's mouth, you could say - on the frikandel, a hot dog native to The Netherlands, Belgium, and parts of Germany. It's deep-fried sausage made out of beef, chicken, pork, and Mr. Ed.

His description (bland, soft, with pink gloop squirting out) doesn't make me want to get on a flight and try it anytime soon, but I'm not a big hot dog guy anyway.

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.

Last fall, Congress passed legislation  that ceased federal, tax-generated funding for the inspections of facilities used to slaughter horses for human consumption. Because all facilities must be inspected to operate, this effectively shut them down. They could not pay the inspection fees themselves. While not illegal in the US to eat horse meat, it is a disgusting idea to many diners, so the horse meat produced was typically exported to Japan or European countries, like France, Belgium and Italy.

This week, in response to aggressive lobbying efforts from pro-slaughter groups and the owners of the slaughtering plants, the Department of Agriculture amended its policy, which has essentially reversed the federal spending ban on equine slaughterhouse inspections by allowing the slaughterhouse inspection fees to be paid by the slaughterhouse or a third party. This means that they will once again be open for business. On of the congressional bill's sponsor's, said that the Department of Agriculture was "intent on going against what was very clearly the purpose of passing the amendment ... to end horse slaughter."

While there has been a great deal of controversy in the past over the treatment of horses destined for slaughter, the primary sticking point is whether horses should be considered to be companion animals, like cats and dogs, or livestock, like cows. The majority of people lean towards the former viewpoint, especially because almost all horses in the US are kept for pleasure and recreational purposes. This move on the part of the Department of Agriculture shows the pull of the slaughtering industry's money over both animal activists and popular opinion.

California is the only state to have a law completely banning the slaughter of horses for human consumption.

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