whatever happened to freedom of speech?

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gmc

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I have sadly had a number of posts removed about a topic that many people are very passionate about..... I was trying to highlight a couple of very interesting Sunday Times articles about illegal horse slaughter in Ireland. I am not permitted to share the articles here but there is a very interesting discussion page on fb...... It's called Truth and answers and it welcomes peoples views about such subjects.

I find it such a shame that these subjects cannot be discussed here.
 
sad but true. several have been removed and I have been warned.... it is very sad that illegal horsemeat trade in Ireland which has been exposed can't be discussed openly
 
Freedom of speech is alive and well.

Your post was pulled twice because you used the word "implicated" in your title, twice, about a company importing Irish racehorses whose passports had been used to allow the slaughter of another horse in Ireland. "Implicated" implies wrongdoing on the part of the organisation mentioned and there was nothing whatsoever in the text of the article that justified the use of that word against the British company.

If you post the information again without that word it will stand.

Until then, it will continue to be deleted, otherwise HHO can be sued for allowing it to be printed.

What else did you expect when you posted ""xyz" implicated" as your title? It didn't exactly suggest that the contents were going to be about the illegal slaughter of horses in Ireland, did it? Was that really what you wanted to discuss or does your choice of title, repeated after a caution, say you have another agenda?

Now, just post your information without the libellous title wording and all will be OK and we can all start to talk about how awful it is that unfit horsemeat is entering the human food chain in Ireland, and worry about the poor French who eat it.
 
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Am I right in saying that you have to subscribe to The Times to read online?

If that is the case, I can imagine many people wouldn't shell out good money just to read one article.
 
I'm fairly sure you would have been told why your posts were removed :rolleyes: If not why don't you ask TFC or admin instead of whinging about it?

You are the one who signed up to the t&c's remember :)
 
I have read the threads and the poster has printed nothing which he cannot easily paraphrase if he wants.

The jist is this:

There are horses alive and well in this country which have been identified as being recorded at Wetherby's as slaughtered in Ireland. A number of those were imported by a company in Derbyshire and sold on. Horses unfit for human consumption are believed to have entered the horsemeat market in Ireland under these horses' passports.


That's it. Exciting, isn't it?
 
I've read the article and it brings up concerns over the fact that there are horses in England with passports stating they are a particular horse but according to Wetherbys the horses named on the passports are listed as deceased, slaughtered in Ireland maybe for human consumption. I believe this is a matter of concern, part of the reasons for passporting was to ensure that no horses entered the food chain that had been the recipients of chemicals that may be hazardous to health, according to this article that may not be the case. There seem to be horses being slaughtered or rehomed with false passports and it is something that needs to be investigated and awareness raised.
 
What is going on with the world? Are we THAT short of meat we have to eat horses?

My OH went to Thailand and ate grasshoppers on a stick. Bbq'd obviously. Delicious. Who needs meat?
 
rhino said:
Why is eating horse meat any 'worse' than eating sheep or cows? :confused:
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I don't know.... It's psychological. I work on a beef farm. I have a few favourites called coco, bozo, Harry and patch who I helped deliver. I love them dearly but I know Harry and patch are off to market. It does not bother me in the slightest. I pet them daily especially coco and her calf. Even tho I know he's off to market soon too.

Oh, my gran bred chickens for meat and I had names for all of them too... And ate them just like the cows.

Horses.......... Somehow, they are just more special. To me anyway. Don't get me wrong, if I were starving, I would kill and eat my own horse to survive. I just find that there being so much waste already and meat being so cheap, why are some countries eating horse??? It's like the japanese eating whales for the sake of it...
 
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tallyho! said:
Horses.......... Somehow, they are just more special. To me anyway. Don't get me wrong, if I were starving, I would kill and eat my own horse to survive. I just find that there being so much waste already and meat being so cheap, why are some countries eating horse??? It's like the japanese eating whales for the sake of it...
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Thanks for explaining :) I just don't really get it, but I don't eat meat at all :)
 
rhino said:
Thanks for explaining :) I just don't really get it, but I don't eat meat at all :)
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That's fine. I tried to be a vegetarian. Admittedly it did not last long. I guess I am wired differently in that way but I do pick and choose what meat I eat and pay a premium for it without begrudging the money. It is a shame any animal has to travel so far to be slaughtered though.... Bring back local houses to stop the suffering. Every time I drive past a lorry full of pigs I feel sick that they have to travel so far to meet the shock.
 
tallyho! said:
I don't know.... I have a few favourites called coco, bozo, Harry and patch who I helped deliver. I love them dearly but I know Harry and patch are off to market. It does not bother me in the slightest. I pet them daily especially coco and her calf. Even tho I know he's off to market soon too.

Oh, my gran bred chickens for meat and I had names for all of them too... And ate them just like the cows.

You know, there is a law (unwritten) that once you name an animal it can not be eaten. (smiles and leaves the room...)
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Someone I know rears different types of meat on a very small scale for own and friends use. All free range and beautifully cared for. They have names like minty (lamb) bramley and banger (pigs) finger lickin, Sunday roast and drumstick (chickens) His children often name them, learn to care for them properly and eat a good fresh healthy diet, without hangups about the food chain and a respect for the animals that provide their food.
An excellent upbringing that many of us grew up in and is very rare today, sadly.
 
tallyho! said:
I don't think that law is abided by, not even by the fair few citizens of this earth :)
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I'm afraid you're right.

A dear friend was in France a few years ago and was introduced to a local farmer. He raised chickens for meat. He took her into one of his huge barns where he had over 15,000 birds. Her response to his invitation to see his flock was "and what are their names?" It was very funny, at the time.
 
tallyho! said:
Don't get me wrong, if I were starving, I would kill and eat my own horse to survive.
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I wouldn't - I have an agreement with a friend that if it came to it, she would have mine killed and eaten and I would have hers. Then we don't have to eat one that we love - much better :D
 
Have we ever had freedom of speech anywhere? I doubt it.

Libel and slander laws have always meant you have to be carefull that what you say is true.

Add that to rules when prosecutions are under way, equality legistlation etc etc.

Would we really want it anyway. Look at what happens on here if TFC isn't around :D :D
 
Shame that the actual underlying issue relating to this article appears to have been lost or not highlighted at all.

This is not about eating horsemeat, contaminated or otherwise, its about unscrupulous dealers/rescuers flouting passport regulations and commiting fraud. No doubt in time this will all come to public attention and no doubt there will be many here who will be aghast at the level some people will stoop to to make a few quid.

Until then....carry on whinging about people who eat meat....
 
The point has been made perfectly clearly, though. There are some people who are taking racehorses, selling the racehorse without a passport (In Ireland, is that illegal there?), or getting a subsitute passport, and using the racehorse passport to put another horse into the human food chain in an abattoir.

The police are onto it. DEFRA know it is an issue with lax passport regulation.

What do you expect us to do about it, especially when practically no-one in the country eats horse meat? This is an issue for the French and other horsemeat eaters and the Irish to worry about. It doesn't bother me much, to be quite honest.

There was, by the way, no suggestion in the original article that there were any unscrupulous dealers or rescue centres responsible for the fraudulent entry of unfit horsemeat into the human food chain. All the horses could have been bought at auction by meatmen, and the unpassported TBs sold on by them without the buyer doing anything wrong at all.

If you have evidence against people involved, pass it to the Police. Other than that I am at a loss to know just what it is you want us to discuss???

I'm getting the impression that your concern, and that of the original poster, is actually for the people who bought the racehorses and nothing at all to do with the horses who were slaughtered with the wrong passport and the risks to human health.

Repassporting is not limited in any way to racehorses, and the blanket advice to anyone buying a horse is surely, have it vetted, get the chip number and if it does not correspond with the paperwork that you have for the horse, walk away unless you can find a good reason why.
 
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Sadly there are still many many people out there who will take at face value anything they are told about a horse, especially if the info is being dished out under the umbrella of rescue/charity.

Until we treat the purchase of a horse a little more like the purchase of a car or a house there are going to be people whose hearts are broken or whose pockets are emptied.
 
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