Fly-grazing and horse meat

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titannik

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Hi everyone,

my name is Annik and I'm currently writing my masters dissertation on abandoned horses and horse meat. It would be great if you could answer my survey about animal empathy, eating habits and fly-grazing. As you all know, fly-grazing is a recurrent problem and there is not enough research, especially on public opinion, to take informed decisions against fly-grazing. The more information we can get, the better it will be for all involved, especially the horses.


thank you all for helping,

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1vVqWgetCtSz9tLoeOHatGK5Clz4VJ_0pHe_dQeWrfOA/viewform?usp=send_form
 
Thank you to everyone who answered the survey. I will analyse the data now so there is no need to answer anymore. Thank you all very much,


Annik
 
No I won't - the first page of questions are personal and highly irrelevant. I think it is a crafty way of getting market research done.

Eta - I have got to the 2nd page. If you are doing a degree, your course tutors have passed this as an acceptable study?
 
Last edited:
Hi everyone,

to answer the important question first: yes, the study was approved by my college (Writtle College). Equi you are not entirely wrong, there is some market research in it, but not marketing. I do not wish to sell you anything. I do however want to know why some people across the world buy horse meat and some do not. In the first page, I ask about religion and income, let me explain why.

Some religions recommend to abstain from eating some kinds of meat. So if you do not eat one specific meat, does that make you more likely to eat other alternative meats such as horsemeat or not?
Regarding income, it seems to me that people with more money are more likely to be able to afford horses. In countries where horsemeat is a delicacy, people with more money would also be more likely to buy horsemeat (if money was the only factor in those countries affecting horsemeat consumption). There are a lot of factors that are relevant in eating choices and behaviours, and because no one has done such research on horses that I could find, I need to take in as many factors as I can that have been relevant in other species, whether they apply to horses can only be shown by later statistical analysis.

I want to know who eats horsemeat and if possible why. My theory is that people who empathise with horses are less likely to eat horsemeat. However, this need comparisons between countries. In some countries it is common to eat horsemeat, even with people who own and love horses. Is the culture in which we grow up more relevant in our eating decisions than the chosen empathy towards animals that are not humans? This is my research question.

What has it got to do with fly-grazing? The US and UK have a very high amount of horses abandoned in recent years (100'000 and 7'000 individuals respectively are estimated). They are called 'unwanted' in the US and are considered fly-grazing in the UK. Those two countries are among those who categorically refuse to eat horsemeat. HRH Princess Anne asked whether introducing horses in the food chain would reduce welfare cases. I am trying with my dissertation to give an overview of the whole issue: why are horses abandoned, how are horses treated before being processed to meat, what is so special about horsemeat, but also where does the horsemeat go? I think after the horsemeat scandal last year, I would like to know how horsemeat is 'made' and where it goes. I am not forcing anyone to like horsemeat, and even less buy it. I'm trying to let people have a say through public opinion studies, and that those people are taken seriously thanks to the science and statistical analysis behind it.

I realise now that this was less clear in the introduction than it should have been. I published the same study in french and it is amazing to see how different the reactions were in french speaking groups compared to here. Thank you very much for your input, and I hope I helped clarify some of the doubts you had towards my scientific seriousness.

As I am analysing the data now, I am not taking anymore results in. I will remove the link tomorrow (if I can, I am not sure I know how to do it). However, if you have more comments, I am more than glad to discuss the issue some more.

Best regards,

Annik
 
Sorry ,but I wouldn't answer questions that personal on any survey! I doubt you could ever rely on any results you get being valid as like most over-personal surveys it is an invitation to lie through your teeth!
 
I thought it was an interesting survey compared to many that get posted on here. I didn't feel the questions were terribly personal, especially as it's anonymous. I think that the mixed feelings we have on eating meat/horse welfare/horse meat etc. as a nation are very intriguing and hope you manage to unravel this a bit!
 
It's an anonymous questionnaire therefore questions about income/religion etc I felt were not personal and furthermore, given the topic, were very relevant. These would be pretty standard socioeconomic questions found on lots of market research stuff

The latter part if the survey I didn't feel was particularly well designed and the link in to fly grazing poorly done (and I'm not sure massively valid anyway).

OP I assume you have floated this around a broad spectrum of society and not just to horse people?
 
It was the religious bit that puzzled me a bit not sure what if any relevance there is to how I feel about animals and how I feel about god
 
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