Posted on 05/01/2013 4:31:41 AM PDT by iowamark
The southern New Mexico plant that has been fighting for more than a year for permission to slaughter horses will open soon, unless Congress reinstates a ban on the practice, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Tuesday.
In a telephone interview on Tuesday, Mr. Vilsack said his department was working to make sure the process was handled properly for the opening of what would be the first domestic horse slaughterhouse in six years.
“We are going to do this, and I would imagine that it would be done relatively soon,” he said.
The Valley Meat Company sued the Department of Agriculture last year, asserting that inaction on its application was driven by emotional political debates and that the delays had cost it hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The department reinspected the plant last week.
“It will open unless Congress restores the ban on horse slaughter that they had in place,” Mr. Vilsack said. “If that doesn’t happen, then we are duty bound to do what needs to be done to allow that plant to begin processing.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Do yourself a favor and take a trip up to Quebec.
Horse steak in Quebec City and it was easily the best steak I ever tasted.
Because there’s so little fat, you have to eat it rare.
Wish I could get it here - but I’m sure USDA would find a way to screw it up.
Horses were slaughtered here in the US until 2007 (I believe). And they were never raised for slaughter.
Having had horses most of my life, I know that they get fat very easily. They don’t need to be “painfully restricted” to get fat.
Please look into the Belgium breed of Adrennes horse. It’s primarily used for meat procurement in Europe. You can fatten a horse up quickly but that doesn’t make the meat tender, there’s a difference between fattening for tenderness and flavor vs. putting weight on the horse.
You have no facts. You worry about BLM mustangs being shipped off to slaughter. You think horses will rival cattle as meat animals, although cattle are much better at turning grass into meat. You worry about horses being slaughtered in the US, but they are currently being trucked to Mexico and killed there.
In response, you have...what? That horsies are too smart to be used for food? Hint - they already are, horses that no one wants, picked up by kill buyers and trucked to Mexico and killed under horrible conditions. And you want them to KEEP being trucked to Mexico! Why? Are you nuts?
Besides...horses are not all that smart. I’ve got 3 in my backyard, and their intellect is underwhelming. Nice personalities, but not geniuses.
As far as cattle's efficiency at turning grass into beef.....a cow consumes less as it chews its cud but a horse forages on a wider variety of plant life. A cow requires continual grass growth which is why they are supplemented in the winter months with liquid molasses and mineral - a very expensive season for cattle ranchers. The horse's incisors allow it to eat the shorter grass longer into the winter, therefore requiring less supplementation.
If a horse is a pet that has to be euthanized it isn't going to Mexico to be slaughtered as the euthanasia process would preclude it from being used for consumption, either by humans or to be used in dog food. That leaves us with abusers - a problem more widespread and manageable vs. the BLM's roundup and ship out. The horses the BLM are rounding up and shipping out are as a result of cattle ranchers using BLM land to graze cattle. It cuts costs for the cattle rancher to rotate to BLM land than it is to continually fortify pastureland.
I'm sorry to hear your horses aren't intelligent....perhaps it's their breeding or perhaps it's the person trying to work with them. It's impossible for me to know since 'I know nothing about horses'.
“look at Europe where horse meat is cheaper than that of the cow.”
That is in Europe, where strict regulations and tiny farms drive the price of beef up. There is a reason the Europeans don’t want us shipping US beef to their market, and it ain’t mad cow disease.
“You didn’t think the were enough horse abusers in Europe that they continually supplied the market, did you?”
Abusers? Are cattle that are killed “abused”? And as I pointed out, Europe has a very different market than the USA.
“A cow requires continual grass growth which is why they are supplemented in the winter months with liquid molasses and mineral - a very expensive season for cattle ranchers. The horse’s incisors allow it to eat the shorter grass longer into the winter, therefore requiring less supplementation.”
You don’t live out west, do you...cattle are left on winter range. And they do better than horses left on winter range, which end up damn skinny.
“If a horse is a pet that has to be euthanized it isn’t going to Mexico”
Ignorance. Lots of backyard horses end up going to slaughter, not euthanasia.
“The horses the BLM are rounding up and shipping out are as a result of cattle ranchers using BLM land to graze cattle. It cuts costs for the cattle rancher to rotate to BLM land than it is to continually fortify pastureland.”
No. BLM mustangs eat too much and will graze themselves into starvation. The BLM is NOT doing ranchers any favors in the west. You also don’t seem to understand how much land in the west is Federal...
“I’m sorry to hear your horses aren’t intelligent....perhaps it’s their breeding or perhaps it’s the person trying to work with them.”
Sorry. Your problem is that you are NOT any smarter than a horse, and thus can’t recognize how stupid they are.
Bless your heart.
Aging the meat will tenderize it just fine. Would you prefer that we continue shipping horses to Mexico slaughterhouses where they get their throats cut with a knife?
Myself, I would rather any animal be humanely killed rather than allowed to slowly die and that their meat be used for the betterment of people rather than rotting.
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Disgusting.
This is what those degenerates in Europe do and its just another effort to re-make the US in Europe’s image.
I would NEVER eat horse or dog or cat. PERIOD. And I think anyone else who does is a barbarian.
If it`s on sale I`ll try it :)
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