When I Say I Love Horses

I don't mean I love them as food.

I just read an article on the New West Network, which is where I read about what's happening in the region where I live, and found a fascinating/horrifying/disgusting tidbit (punny, yes?) about USDA approval of the slaughter of horses for human consumption at three foreign-owned meat plants in the U.S. 

Lovely.

And that got me to wondering about how many foreign-owned meat plants there are in the U.S. and why they don't have to follow U.S. rules.

I'm currently reading Eclipse Award winning jockey Jerry Bailey's life story, and just finished reading two other "horsey" books in preparation for Triple Crown season.  I really do love horses, and have taken some English equitation and dressage lessons, and would like to take more. 

This whole thing reminds me of a scene in Michael Moore's movie Roger and Me, which is about what happens to Flint, Michigan after the GM auto plant closes.  In one scene a woman is raising rabbits and has a big sign saying "Pets or Meat."  Food for thought.  (Even more punny, yes?)

And there is a popular bumper sticker here in The People's Republic of Boulder that says something like, "Why do we call some animals food and eat them, and call other animals pets and feed them?"  Good question.

I'm an erratic, essentially hypocritical vegetarian.  I don't eat or prepare any meat at home, except for the very occasional smoked salmon for bagels; but I'll sometimes have mad cravings for chicken or even beef and will eat them if someone else does all the dirty work and serves them to me on a platter in their home or in a restaurant.  Yes, this is hypocrisy.  If I think about what I'm really eating, and how it got to my plate, I can't eat it.  I eat a ton of seafood (LOVE sushi, had sushi for lunch today!), especially when we're in Homer; but I can't cook it myself.  But I can't seem to quite give it up entirely.  This article about human consumption of horses will likely push me further into the vegetarian part of the spectrum along which I eat.

Comments

[Heidi Longaberger]

There are three slaughter houses in the US that butcher horses for human consumption. Two in Texas and one in Illinois. Two are Belgium owned, one French owned. I'm not sure of the ownership of other types of slaughterhouses in the US, or the regulations they must adhere to. Estimates of horses slaughtered in the US in 2005 range from 100,000-120,000. Many others are shipped to Mexico or Canada for slaughter. There are some folks, from all walks of life, who get rid of their horses by sending them to the local livestock auction to be sold by the pound to a "killer buyer," who then transports them, often inhumanely, to the slaughterhouse and resells them. All types of horses end up there, from thoroughbreds who once raced, to unwanted foals, to the dressage master who ended up in the wrong hands or became injured. The reasons vary, from they can't be ridden anymore to the owner didn't realize how much time and money it took to keep a horse. In my mind, it comes down to irresponsibilty and a throw away culture. I could go on and on...but check out The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act at http://www.hr857.com/ if you'd like some more information. Now I'll get off my high-horse. Gee, you think I'm a horse lover too?!

[Renee Berberian]

Amy - ugh, now I'm forever going to wonder...though it seems much more ugly with horses than with cows