I see two main practical concerns over "Horse meat".
One...
Safety. I have said it before, and will again, horses are exposed to WAY too many medications, insecticides, antibiotics, for me to ever consider eating one.
The average horse that ends up at slaughter is MUCH older than a cow that was raised and quickly sent to slaughter. Thats many more years of regular ivermectin wormers (and other insecticides), regular fly spraying (many that warn people to use gloves while applying, yet people want to eat that?), twice yearly vaccinations, all manner of antibiotics... and all of those are for a HEALTHY horse. The list is a lot scarier for a horse that has had a health problem. The kind that is likely to make it to slaughter.
Cows, Pigs, Poultry, ect that are raised for meat are NOT raised in this manner. The medications given to them are carefully selected (approved for animals for human consumption), used in some degree of moderation, and then the animal is sent to slaughter at a very early age... so it's total exposure to something like a wormer.. for a cow.. is probably less than a half dozen treatments. A 5 year old horse? Hundreds of treatments, with pesticides not listed for use in animals intended for human consumption.
Two...
Say a horse was born and raised for the sole purpose of meat.
That would be 3 or 4 years of growing to get the size for slaughter. Feed - growth/weight ratio of a horse compared to a cow? It sounds totally un-economical to me. Completely not practical.
So in summary... Horse going to slaughter from normal equine situations could never be used to feed people safely or legally. They may make it into pet food one way or another, but I wouldn't feed my dog meat that was not raised to be eaten.
If horses were raised to be meat animals, I could see it only as being the most expensive meat on the shelves. I could also see a huge problem with the operations that would be raising horses for consumption..... in that too many people who own horses for pleasure don't even "get" horses... let alone a commercial operation.
You could not stock them in a feed lot and expect them to just stand there like many kinds of livestock would. They would be over that fence. They would be through that fence. They would be tangled up in that fence and harming themselves. They would be fighting with one another in close confines like that, trampling each other in close confines like that. They would not be eating in a stressful situation like that. Thus not gaining weight. Horses have a different mind than cows or sheep. None of them are stupid, but horses are *different*. They are sensitive.
So yeah... if you want to pick one of the most complicated animals to raise to be your food animal... and you want to devote an acre per horse. Then feed them all until you are broke... then see if people want to buy that expensive meat when they could buy a nice juicy, young, steak for a lot less.
One...
Safety. I have said it before, and will again, horses are exposed to WAY too many medications, insecticides, antibiotics, for me to ever consider eating one.
The average horse that ends up at slaughter is MUCH older than a cow that was raised and quickly sent to slaughter. Thats many more years of regular ivermectin wormers (and other insecticides), regular fly spraying (many that warn people to use gloves while applying, yet people want to eat that?), twice yearly vaccinations, all manner of antibiotics... and all of those are for a HEALTHY horse. The list is a lot scarier for a horse that has had a health problem. The kind that is likely to make it to slaughter.
Cows, Pigs, Poultry, ect that are raised for meat are NOT raised in this manner. The medications given to them are carefully selected (approved for animals for human consumption), used in some degree of moderation, and then the animal is sent to slaughter at a very early age... so it's total exposure to something like a wormer.. for a cow.. is probably less than a half dozen treatments. A 5 year old horse? Hundreds of treatments, with pesticides not listed for use in animals intended for human consumption.
Two...
Say a horse was born and raised for the sole purpose of meat.
That would be 3 or 4 years of growing to get the size for slaughter. Feed - growth/weight ratio of a horse compared to a cow? It sounds totally un-economical to me. Completely not practical.
So in summary... Horse going to slaughter from normal equine situations could never be used to feed people safely or legally. They may make it into pet food one way or another, but I wouldn't feed my dog meat that was not raised to be eaten.
If horses were raised to be meat animals, I could see it only as being the most expensive meat on the shelves. I could also see a huge problem with the operations that would be raising horses for consumption..... in that too many people who own horses for pleasure don't even "get" horses... let alone a commercial operation.
You could not stock them in a feed lot and expect them to just stand there like many kinds of livestock would. They would be over that fence. They would be through that fence. They would be tangled up in that fence and harming themselves. They would be fighting with one another in close confines like that, trampling each other in close confines like that. They would not be eating in a stressful situation like that. Thus not gaining weight. Horses have a different mind than cows or sheep. None of them are stupid, but horses are *different*. They are sensitive.
So yeah... if you want to pick one of the most complicated animals to raise to be your food animal... and you want to devote an acre per horse. Then feed them all until you are broke... then see if people want to buy that expensive meat when they could buy a nice juicy, young, steak for a lot less.
