Killing Horses for Humans to Eat!

[Oregon Blues]

I'd like to point out that horses are not frightened by a long trip in a truck. Horses ride around in trucks or trailers all the time. I've driven horses in trailers halfway across the USA several times and there was no fear involved at all. The horses would eat and sleep in the trailer and after 3,000 miles or 5,000 miles they would still walk right in. They wouldn't go into a trailer easily if the experience were frightening to them.

There are more horses then there are homes for them. The unwanted horses are going to die because there is nobody to take care of them. Once the horse is dead, it isn't going to matter to the horse what happens to his body. Better, in my opinion, for all that meat to go to good use than to have it rot away unused.

Squishy, making up "facts" doesn't really make for a good argument. Horse meat is exported to Europe and it is for human consumption. Just because you don't want to believe it doesn't make it an untruth.

 

[checoukan]

you said it very plain oregon blues. Wonderful job!
I was reading "Craigslist", and a farm family was posting a "Found Horse", it just came walking in the drive. Someone turned it loose. Now these people are wanting to find a home for it because they don't want it! A horse still is just an animal and people are dropping them off like unwanted dogs and cats. A local auction facitity had to padlock their gates, as they were come in everyday to find horses that people had brought in and just tied them up to the fence. Just left them there with no names or anything.

 

[chickened]

Could you eat this guy?

 

[Carols Clucks]

One thing you can do on your own if eating horse meat bothers you, is flip that bag of dog food you buy over and read the ingredients.


"Meat" with no source animal listed could be that imported horse meat. Same with "Meat by products"

Any pet food that uses a general meat source could be using different meats.

 

[dainerra]

if horse meat becomes a readily available commodity, then who is to say that it won't become another premium dog food? I would buy it. Goodness knows that it has to be cheaper than the kangaroo protein sources!

 

[EweSheep]

I agree with Beekissed, Henny and Oregon Blues. Point well driven!

As for chemicals and pesticides, we get that in our foods as well so what one more would be? If we exported all those horses to Mexico to be sold in Europe, you can bet those horses are already wormed, vaccinated, etc. But heat or being well cooked usually kill almost all the things that are poisonous to us. So the people in Europe would have been sick all over the place or some kind of withdrawal or reactions...there is not a report that I know of yet resulting from that kind of poisoning Squishy is mentioning. If horsemeat is that bad, they would not still be eating them.

Sure I will feed us and my animals horsemeat. I dont know if the prices will go down if we do end up a glut of horses coming in for slaughter. Grind all the meat and send it on to the animal food factories. Or if it is deemed safe, we can eat it too.

Honestly I dont think I seen a butchershop selling horsemeat OR taking in a horse you slate for slaughter to the butcher.

 

[Alicia G]

Ive had horse meat and it was good. I think as long as the animal was put down humanely, almost any animal would be good for eating. People across the world eat different meats like horse, dog, cat, rabbit, kangaroo, even raccoon! Some cultures eat insects as well, use the blood from animals as food... it really all depends on how you were raised in my opinion.. But in the end, its meat, whether its from a cow or a horse, or any other animal

 

[zzGypsy]

Quote:
I'll respectfully disagree with this comment. Sheep are just as finely attuned to the fear response of a herd and have an incredibly strong fight or flight ....more so, in fact, than any domestic horse I've seen.

When it all comes down to the bottom of the bottom, any animal sent to a slaughter house has pretty much a fear and anxiety response to the experience...if you've ever taken a group of animals in, you can see this very plainly.

I've raised both horses and sheep for over 30 years, and I've watched both sheep and horses fight for what I'm sure they believe is their lives, and for escape. I've been right there with the handling and slaughter of all but one of the sheep we've ever culled.

it is my observation that fear and flight are much the same, but many horses will fight until they are no longer physically able, while sheep often give up. while I don't know what their experience is, no one can, I do know they behave differently at the point where it's reasonable to think they fear for their lives.

..........

there are slaughter houses and there are slaughter houses. something near half the cattle processing plants in this country have cattle handling facilities that were designed by Dr. Temple Grandin. If you're not familiar with her or her work it's worth looking up. she's a severely autistic woman who has found a way to function despite her very non-standard brain, a vet, and an animal perception and handling expert.

if you look at slaughter houses in a practical way, they're a business with a bottom line. things like frightened and stressed animals affect their profits. it takes more people to handle the animals which increases cost. there are more injuries and deaths to the livestock which reduces profit. stress and injuries reduce the quality of the meat, making them less competitive than other slaughterhouses. what they need is a process where cattle move easily without a lot of manpower, without significant fear, without having to be prodded with a hotshot, without hurting themselves or other cows. to have that, they need a system where cattle are calm, relatively unafraid. in other words, not a traumatic experience.

there are specific standards for judging the cattle's level of fear. percent of animals vocalizing. number of times a hotshot has to be used in a group to keep them moving. number of injuries to livestock or handlers. percentage of processed meat showing bruising or stress related damage. those are quantifiable measures that tell you how stressful the animals find the experience. while it's not possible to know exactly what the animal experiences, it's possible to measure the responses that are directly tied to fear and stress.

What Dr. Grandin does is design systems for handling cattle (and other livestock) that keeps the animals calm and as unafraid as possible, giving them as little stress as possible, while still making a slaughter house functional.

THAT is what I'd be interested in seeing for horse slaughter facilities. I think there is a need, but my concern is that it won't be done humanely. if appropriate handling and holding facilities are used, while still sad, I think it's a reasonable solution.

 

[herfrds]

There are too many horses out there and too many that are called mustangs that are stuck in pens with no hope of adoption.

Slaughter is the answer.

Too many people have blamed the breeders but what is also forgotten is the buyers who want a horse out of a certain breeding or a certain color
or maybe this breeding will be the next triple crown winner.
So the blame goes both ways and also with the hobby people who bought a horse and now do not have the money to take care of it.

 

[zzGypsy]

Quote:
that's what got the mad cow issue started in europe... commercial beef raisers were feeding beef byproducts to cows as a protien source. why not? there were no reports of issues, so how can it be a problem? until there WERE reports of issues. and people began to die from mad cow disease. and once identified they realized a lot of deaths that were attributed to other things were probably from mad cow.

some things are more clear in retrospect. the long-term damage from eating stuff that will kill you in the long run, but not right away, is one of them.

I'll be skipping the horsemeat, unless it's raised with the intent to eat it. for the same reasons we raise our own sheep, and chickens, and turkeys. and soon beef also.