horse slaughter ??? Behave now....

Had a discussion a little while ago with an expert :roll: ..... Anyway.... he was talking about how wrong it is to yadda yadda and it should be banned like it was in the states.... I told him that it wasn't banned, just the inspectors made it so hard on processors that they quit doing it.... Was that the case, or was it actually just not allowed?

It was banned in the USA.

Many problems occured which is predictable.

Now it's allowed again, but difficult to attract start-up business to re-pass all the regulations - not grandfathered in any more, so a whole new round of regulations to wade through.

--->Paul

Not sure if it was "banned", per se- but as I understand it, guvment took all federal inspectors out of the horse slaughter houses, so the meat couldn't be sold. So not illegal to slaughter a horse, you just couldn't sell the meat, which of course instantly put all of the processors out of business.

Sure glad to see horse slaughter resumed, as are most people in the horse business. Its a shame to waste the meat, and horse rescue is considerably different than dog rescue- horses eat a lot, need care, and may last 10 or 15 years after they injure themselves or become unsound. "No kill" just doesn't work, there are too many around.

I believe MikeWA has it correct. But now that the USDA has agreed to supply inspectors (their wages are paid by the corporation requesting inspection) companies are not lining to resume slaughter. Apparently getting put out of business once is enough for most of them.

It wasn't actually banned. The HSUS (which isn't either, U.S. or Humane Society) pressured a few members of congress to cut funding for federal inspection for horse meat, which was used for dog food and sut and sent for export to places like France, where they eat it. That effectively shut down the packers. What they didn't realize was that it was going to cost about $2K per year per animal from the mustang herds that BLM was charged with removing from BLM lands just for feed and care. Congress rectified the mistake by reinstating the funds last year,so packing is picking back up.

According to regs, the Mustangs are not to be slaughtered.

A few issues here ain't there?
Horses have only been used as food 3 times in 235 of the US. Wartorn ' Sherman's March' route in the Civil war, 2nd world war meat rationing susbstitute, the food and fuel mega inflation of the mid 1970's. There never was much of a 'horse meat industry' to kill. Except for MY horses, YOUR horses, TAXPAYER owned wild horses on BLM land. Which the slaughter of doesn't don't show up as a check in my mailbox or lower taxes. A benefit for crooked politicians and cattlemen who lease rather than own taxable land... like those of us back east have to.
Most other horses..were, in general, somebody's pet. Like a dog or a cat, so that brings up moral issues of how it should or will die. You shoot it in back of the barn, OK, vet injects it, OK. A high voltage cattle prod up a ramp to have a stranger kill it while all the rest of the streetwise herd looks on.... well this is tractor talk, so I guess that is par for the course!
May not be long before old, worn out useless humans meet the same end, hey, if it ain't your grandma.... and some one overseas will pay good money by the pound.
Personally, I would like to see useless people and Kentucky derby losers turned into an abiotic petroleum substitute to keep my tractors going..... no one will agrue with that!!!

HSUS and PETA tried that route first- congress wouldn't pass it, that's when they pushed for the funding cut for inspections. The big packers had to shut something down to keep inspection on cattle and other domestic meats. Congress, however, continued to hold BLM to the removal of mustangs from from public land to decrease numbers in areas they were ruining, but did not appropriate funding to maintain the culled animals, a cost of about $2K per year. And the number of "adoptions" quickly went south, especially in the bad economy. Reinstating inspections for the export market was the cheaper way to get through the problem.

For every action, there is a reaction. Mustangs are an introduced species and were destroying habitat of many other critters, so something had to go. Horsey lovers may not like it, but they should respect it. Or 'pony' up their own cash for a change instead of the public's money.

There are a lot of horses that are not wanted and are too old to be useful. I think we have hungry people and food banks that are short on food so why can't they be killed and if the hungry people want to eat them fine if not no one will force them. Seems like a win win to me. JMO

Bob

So why is slaughtering a horse any different from slaughtering a cow?

We are conditioned as Americans to believe that there are only three types of consumable meat: beef, pork, chicken.

Anything else is DISGUSTING, especially if it was once someone's pet...

In this day and age, I don't think you could get a hungry man to knowingly, willingly eat horse meat if it was given to him for free.

(quoted from post at 12:40:29 05/07/12) We are conditioned as Americans to believe that there are only three types of consumable meat: beef, pork, chicken.

Anything else is DISGUSTING, especially if it was once someone's pet...

In this day and age, I don't think you could get a hungry man to knowingly, willingly eat horse meat if it was given to him for free.

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Guy I was talking to is a real dimestore shitonyer boots cowboy (on the weekends) and swears he'd never eat a man's mount....
Horse slaughter is legal here, just can't sell it with other meats. About every tractor show, horse show or fest has a horsemeat peddler. 2 years ago, we were at a tractor show and he was on his kick, I was going to get a bratwurst and asked if he wanted one..... he did, so I got mine, and went nextdoor and got his from the horse meat guy with a receipt. Took em back and we scarfed em down, said he wanted another one and was gonna get me one... Gave him the receipt and told him I would like a pork one..... Coulda heard a pin drop.....
Today's the first time since that day that horse meat has ever came into conversation......

I had salami and a couple other things when I first got over here because I thought Pferde Metzger (horse butcher) was the guy's name that had the booth :roll: Didn't taste bad tho.... Just don't think I'd bring myself to order it.....

We've had two horses put down, but gave them to a butcher rather than have the vet do it and them picked up with a fork and dumped in a tank for the render....

They actually turned people into food for the other humans.
Soylent Green (1973) starring Charlton Hesston, after a novel from Harry Harrison

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070723/

A true Sci-Fi classic!!
Ralph in Oklahoma.

We had a horse butcher in our town for a few years when I grew up in Germany,, mid to late 70s. He slaughtered in the local butcher shop but also had several sales outlets across the State of Saarland.
I remember it needs to be cooked well. Dark reddish, very lean. Had steak, roast and bologna and salami made from horse. Slightly different taste, but good. I remember that I was the driving force in trying it, my mom jst pleased me. It was cheaper than pork which is much cheaper than beef in Germany at that time.
I also know that the French have been eating horse meat for many years, a delicatesse!
It is lower in fat (1/3 of chicken), low cholesterol, and has several minerals in higher amounts. There are about 100 horse butcher shops in germany, compared to ~20000 for cattle. A very few restaurants, too.

I'd give it a try.
And if I liked it, I'd order some from Quebec.

Problem is many of these horses have never been anyone's mount.

I don't know how many times I've seen three to six year old horses that have never been ridden for sale. The owner wanted to breed their horse but couldn't or wouldn't spend the money to break and train them. They are all over Craigs List.


http://ksu.craigslist.org/grd/2997990148.html

http://ksu.craigslist.org/grd/2952731482.html

http://ksu.craigslist.org/grd/2977724453.html

The KC Craigs list is even worse.

The blich of all this is,nobody's even talking about eating it here. We just need to get back to where we were 5 years ago. Trouble is,there were slaughter houses that slaughtered pretty much JUST horses and they have shut down because of the lack of inspection money. Who's going to invest the money to start up another one when congress,on a whim,can bankrupt them in the blink of an eye. The damage is done.

As for the "killing our pets" crowd,I'll paraphrase Temple Grandin. She says nature is cruel. Death in nature is cruel. If we're going to have these animals,we owe them a humane death at the end. Where this "sticking electrodes up their rear while the others watch" garbage came from? I can only guess HSUS or PETA. Some people just don't give a damm how big a fool they make of themselves.

Why can't we do other things with the carcasses. Dog food and glue come to mind.

anthropomorphism: noun

(from the Greek anthrôpos, for human, and morphé, for shape)

"The idea that an animal or an object has feelings or characteristics like those of a human being."

It is a favorite tool of organizations like HSUS and PETA.

Just a psychological hangup. Aside from the "pet" thing, I believe it's the idea that horses, unlike cattle and hogs, are not bred and raised for meat. Consequently, the horses that are designated for meat are those which are old, sick, injured, etc., not a prime riding or working animal. In other words, most people may, with some justification, perceive them as "tainted" or inferior.

To compare a HORSE to a human is just plain STUPID!!!! A horse is a domesticated animal just like a hog, cattle or chicken!!!!

Then the most far fetched item "Horses have only been used as food 3 times in 235 of the US." I assume you meant 235 years???? Any way horses where used for meat many times in the past. In colonial times wild horse where hunted for meat. When the west was being settled horse meat was used when supplies ran low. Read about some of the wagon trails that where caught in bad weather( Not just the Donner Party) They would kill the weakest horses to eat to survive. In frontier towns the local butcher would have had horse meat as well as pork and beef. Read some of the actual accounts from people in those time and you will see it was not uncommon.

You don't have to study history much to learn that our ancestors had way more common sense than most do today. An animal was just that in the past. You seem to want to make all the animals "PET". Well them give us your address. I bet we can send you a few hundred old horses for you to take care of. I bet then your song would change.

FU2 I guess. I ate horse meat, so what? I ate all sorts of animals, owned all sorts of livestock. Paid for them, paid taxes on the land they lived on, feed em, ate em. But I never tortured abused or neglected any. So I guess I am an anti. There are people on this page who brag about clobbering a head of livestock with a 2x4 one day, and 8itch it runs away from him the next, and wants to kill it, discribes calibre, barrel length, grains of blue dot powder etc etc. I guess this is cool thing to do. Took in some horses lately from someone who couldn't afford the keep, but they ain't babied anymore, they are surviving, they adapt. As far as animals aren't human, I know many head of livestock with more 'horse sense' than people on this forum. Your views on horses as well as numerous other subjects you are an authority on are well documented here. So what? Oh, by the way, the Donner party ate each other. I was told people taste like pork.

The Donner Party eat the Horses first.

As for abusing animals I don't condone that but there has to be a way to handle the old and non trainable horses.

I see too many people that let an animal suffer because they can't stand to see it put down.

As for animals/livestocks the biggest difference is that I treat them well but don't make them pets. At any given time I have several hundred head of cattle on the farms. They are treated well and kept feed/healthy but they are not pets. They are raised for one purpose that is to be meat some day. Every single one of them.

(quoted from post at 19:39:01 05/07/12) To compare a HORSE to a human is just plain STUPID!!!! .

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Dam straight..... If humans were more like horses, I'd prolly like em better....
I'd look a strange horse in the eye and turn my back on it much quicker than I would with a human.

I'd never beat a horse but wouldn't bat an eye about an adult/male human if necessary...

I'm dam sure more patient and tolerant with a horse...

Aaaaaaaannnnddddddd..... A horse can't talk so it can be a complete idiot and noone will notice it unless it shows it physically... Where some humans fall all over themselves trying to be the first to boast thier ignorance.....

(quoted from post at 20:11:38 05/07/12) FU2 I guess..

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That's not bein have......... Don't they teach you folks in the far east any better????

The fact that this is even an issue just shows how sad of a state we are in as a society. Every one wants our Nation/society to get "better" but as my grandmother who came up durring the depression says "folks ain't hungry 'nuff for it to happen yet." The bleedy heart folks on tv want to save the horses but no one wants to pay for them.

Up the road here last summer there was a guy with a spray painted plywood sign propped up again his mail box that said "Gelding 4 Sale. $125 obo." A few months after I seen the sign for the first time there were buzzards roosting on an old barn back behind the house and there was distint smell in the air. There are people in this world that are really hungry and the local coyoties and buzzards are do'n ok.

None of us prefer the sentencing to death or slaughter of any animal, regardless of the species; but, the reality of it all is, that we need horse slaughter houses as a practical alternative and solution to govern the horse population. Public Laws forbid burying a horse on your own property these days because of possible contamination of water sources and supplies; so, what’s the practical alternative or solution? I agree that the need of unnecessary suffering needs to be resolved in all slaughter houses, regardless of species . . . cow, pig, chicken, etc. As for horse meat for human consumption, if it is untainted and USDA inspected, it is an excellent source of meat protein and an alternative to beef, pork, poultry, and other human-grade meat sources. If that is too hard for the U.S. human meat industry to consider, use horse meat for carnivorous animal food diets, just as other animal sources are used. The horse industry has crashed since the close of horse slaughter houses, and reopening of the horse slaughter houses is the only resolution to the over population of horses in the U.S. Do you really think that hunter’s get the shot exactly right for an instant kill every time, or slashing the throats of cows and pigs is a quick death, or wringing the necks or cutting-off the heads of chickens is instantaneous demise? Sit-back and give serious thought to all animal slaughter solutions, not just that of horses; if you’re going to sympathize with one species of animal, sympathize with them all; but the end result and reality-check has been the same for thousands of years of animal slaughter for human and animal consumption. Citizens within the U.S. need to ban together and offer better solutions to the overall humane slaughter of animals for whatever the meat by-product use is and not the concentration of one species.