Posted on 10/24/2011 6:37:03 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
LINCOLN, Neb. — The closing of the country’s last meat processing plant that slaughtered horses for human consumption was hailed as a victory for equine welfare. But five years later just as many American horses are destined for dinner plates to satisfy the still robust appetites for their meat in Europe and Asia.
Now they are carved into tartare de cheval or basashi sashimi in Mexico and Canada.
That shift is one of the many unintended consequences of a de facto federal ban on horse slaughter, according to a recent federal government study. As the domestic market for unwanted horses shrinks, more are being neglected and abandoned, and roughly the same number — nearly 140,000 a year — are being killed after a sometimes grueling journey across the border.
“When they closed the plants, that put more of a hardship on our horses than the people who wanted to stop the slaughter can imagine,” said John Schoneberg, a Nebraska horse breeder who recently took in three horses from a nearby farmer who said that he was unable to pay for feed and would otherwise turn them loose.
The study’s findings have been fiercely contested by animal welfare groups, which argue that most of the problems stem from the economic downturn and the high price of feed. The study also breathed new life into the long-smoldering battle over whether to allow the resumption of domestic horse slaughter or, alternatively, to prohibit the animals from being shipped abroad for their meat.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Disneyland meets reality.
Keep sending your checks to HSUS, folks! You’ll feel much better about yourselves . . . why care about what actually happens to the animals?
Cooked up a real winner.
HSUS is only a tad behind PETA.
I’ve eaten horse (steak) before...not bad, but a little racey...kinda hard to outrun the trots the next day though.
It seems to me that those who oversentimentalize animals are almost as cruel as those who abuse them overtly...
Pinch Sulzberger could not possibly have written this story. A horse’s ass doesn’t have that capability.
Meanwhile the slaughter of cows and pigs and birds, soybean and wheat and corn plants, continues unabated.
NEIGH, I SAY, NEIGH!...............
No, it doesn’t chew a cud, nor split hoof..........but you can eat a camel.........
No, the hoof is not cloven. They do not chew cud.
I consume horse meat with unbridled passion. I’ve spurred many of my friends toward the same bit. Some are skiddish at first but then collect themselves and their lame prejudice gets turned out. I don’t eat green meat - that’s a cinch!
Many Europeans eat horsemeat. The French and - this I know personally - the Sicilians. They sell it in the open markets and it looks a little like liver to me. Kind of slimy.
Thumbs up. :-)
Catania, Sicily...the first (and only) place I've ever eaten horse. Good taste, but tough. (Stationed in Sicily while in US Navy).
HSUS is a way liberal interest group that has a name that tugs at the hearts of ignorant dupes who send it checks to feel good and superior to we hard heads who deal with facts, instead of emotions.
Sure, horses are noble animals that inspire admiration in most folks but, when there are too many wild ones on the range eating the grass to the roots, it’s time to cull them. If the culled carcasses go to Europe for the French to snack on, so what?
*HSUS is only a tad behind PETA.*
PETA with a suit and a haircut.
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