Horses for Meat

From article

One person in Venice wrote: "Why is the government trying to abolish something that is buried in the roots of Italian culture? If it is banned it will just be driven underground and there will be a thriving black market."

Just like the Mafia!
 
Sorry... but on the subject of subsidies, it's my understanding that all subsidies are going to be eventually removed in the same way as in New Zealand. This will have a dramatic effect, not only on the farmer, but also on us as consumers. The price of food will have to reflect it's true production cost so it will inevitably go up. This will mean that farming practices 'should' improve as farmers will only be paid the reflective value of what they're producing ie. you produce a bad product, you get paid poorly. The subsidy system is already changing to reflect this, and is more of a whole farm payment as opposed to an per head of animal payment. As someone said, governments can't afford to keep paying these premiums, instead we'll have to pay for what we eat.
I have no problem eating horse meat as long as the animals have been treated properly and slaughtered as humanely as possible.
 
I've been away a few days too. I wanted to add a few comments...

1. How can Yorkshire be described as a totally different farming community from Cumbria? Yes some parts of the region are arable, with good grazing etc, but the part I live in is very like Cumbria generally spreaking.. hills, poor grass, and moorland..

2. How well farmers do is generally dictated by the supermarkets cutting costs. This impacts on how well the animals are kept, again generally speaking...

4. I studied Italian years ago (so this thread was a nice little revision session for me), and at uni we were taught that Italy votes for more EU laws than any other member of the EU. It also breaks more rules than any other EU member (this was info I was given 12years ago, so they may have been beaten on these areas since then). So I wouldn't hold my breath on them stopping eating horsemeat even if it were banned...

3. Where were the free hoofpicks at Burghley???
 
Honey08 said:
3. Where were the free hoofpicks at Burghley???
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PMSL at the threats of sharpened combs!

I'm still with blacklist - similar ideas on eating a bit of horse and he has a hoof pick WITH A SPIKEY BRUSH!!!!!!

They were at the H&H stall! You did a free lucky dip thing and if you didnt (which I never do!) then they give you a hoof pick. Same thing happened at Olympia. Plan to get another at Burghley 2010.

So I have TWO free plastic hoof picks... bet those sharpened comb people are scared now!!!
 
You used to get free hoof picks with some pony magazines in the old days, they looked like they were made of teracotta and I doubt they'd work well as weapons or hoof picks. I had 2, I kept them on my shelf of horse things for "when-I-get-a-horse".
 
Farrierlover said:
You used to get free hoof picks with some pony magazines in the old days, they looked like they were made of teracotta and I doubt they'd work well as weapons or hoof picks. I had 2, I kept them on my shelf of horse things for "when-I-get-a-horse".
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Ohhh, I remember those! I dont have any though damn it....

*goes rummaging through tack box to find weapons*

I can raise you one old hoof oil brush - plus my two free hoof picks of course. Bet everyone is quaking in their boots!
 
sgill said:
A "Good Life" for a horse includes the owners responsibility to NOT send it to the slaughter pen. Watch the videos...slaughter is NOT humane.
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I've watched videos of one the UK slaughterhouses and it was all very profession and calm. I didn't have a problem with it.
 
Please send me the address of the video you watched. I know it is not calm and serene. Horses are flight animals, they smell and sense what will happen...
besides that, the chemicals in horsemeat make it an unhealthy product. Check on the info on website flyingfilly.com
 
sgill said:
Please send me the address of the video you watched. I know it is not calm and serene. Horses are flight animals, they smell and sense what will happen...
besides that, the chemicals in horsemeat make it an unhealthy product. Check on the info on website flyingfilly.com
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I don't know the address, there was a link on here ages ago. And actually it was very calm, the horse would be led in quietly and it was all over very quickly.
 
Processing plants are usually set up to handle 100's of equines in a day. The enter long chutes and slide or are electrically prodded into a Kill box.
The horses are terrified, and often the stun bolt does not work (horses are naturally quicker and more headshy than cattle and the killbolts are shaped for cattle not horses).
This means many horses are "processed" while still alive. 10% live vivisection is considered "acceptable" processing standards. That means out of 100,000 horses killed, 10,000 end up being cut up by electric chain saw while still alive. Hardly humane by any standards and certainly not a good deal for "Old dobbin". Check out the chemicals (harmful to humans i.e. known carcinogens) found in horse meat.
If you want to eat it at least be an informed consumer, it's your "liver".
Again, you can find research to back up what I'm saying at flyingfilly.com

or go to links for AWI or HSUS.
 
We're talking about slaughter in the UNITED KINGDOM. Not sure what the HSUS would have to do with slaughter in the UK.
 
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The HSUS has nice but rather unrealistic ideas on how to deal with unwanted horses. It would be lovely if every horse could be re-homed or just not bred in the first place. But it is rather disingenuous of the HSUS to talk about “horrific form of slaughter in Mexico and Canada. These horses are stabbed multiple times in the neck with a "puntilla knife" to sever their spinal cords” and “tens of thousands of live horses are transported across the border to Mexico and Canada for slaughter” when banning horse slaughter in America contributes to this. Abattoirs are not nice, but not every horse is rehomed and places like Potters show how it can be done with respect and humanely. I know this a thread about the UK but I feel the US has shown how it can go very wrong and has done horses there no good at all.
 
paisley said:
places like Potters show how it can be done with respect and humanely. I know this a thread about the UK but I feel the US has shown how it can go very wrong and has done horses there no good at all.
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Agreed.

There should be more Abattoirs in this country.
 
sgill said:
Please send me the address of the video you watched. I know it is not calm and serene. Horses are flight animals, they smell and sense what will happen...
besides that, the chemicals in horsemeat make it an unhealthy product. Check on the info on website flyingfilly.com
Click to expand...

I have seen 6 horses slaughtered 3 at Crothers in Yorkshire and 3 at Turners in Derbyshire. It was a hard thing to watch but I wanted to be sure it was done properly and humanely. In all 6 cases it was, the horses were treated with dignity and it was very quick and humane.

I think on the whole we have better standards here in the UK than in the US.

It was much better than some other methods of horse disposal I have seen
 
sgill said:
Processing plants are usually set up to handle 100's of equines in a day. The enter long chutes and slide or are electrically prodded into a Kill box.
The horses are terrified, and often the stun bolt does not work (horses are naturally quicker and more headshy than cattle and the killbolts are shaped for cattle not horses).
This means many horses are "processed" while still alive. 10% live vivisection is considered "acceptable" processing standards. That means out of 100,000 horses killed, 10,000 end up being cut up by electric chain saw while still alive. Hardly humane by any standards and certainly not a good deal for "Old dobbin". Check out the chemicals (harmful to humans i.e. known carcinogens) found in horse meat.
If you want to eat it at least be an informed consumer, it's your "liver".
Again, you can find research to back up what I'm saying at flyingfilly.com

or go to links for AWI or HSUS.
Click to expand...

You are talking about the US? my thread is about the UK.

I think if you saw cattle, sheep or pigs killed you would find that equally disturbing to watch - I can't think of many people who get pleasure in watching animals killed for meat or otherwise. It is a necessary evil for us 'meat' eaters and I personally have to problem with it if humanely done whether it be cattle, horses etc.

But i am moving off my original thread now:

"What does the forum think on the subject of eating horses. If a horse has had a good life and is humanely slaughtered here in UK then exported for meat to the Continent - why is the right/wrong? and why don't we eat horseflesh here in the UK. Is is not really any different to an agricultural meat animal - except we ride them."
 
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