way to go texas

[Dalya]

horse slaughter is now illegal in tx

http://www.hsus.org/in_the_courts/news_ ... horse.html

[sam]

So horses get a free pass because little boys and girls don't dream of one day having their own adorable little Hereford or Charolais?

[ifihadahifi]

Horse meat is crueler that beef, lamb, pork or chicken?

[Irock]

Good to know the Lobby To Prevent Bad Things From Happening To Animals That Are Cute is ever vigilant.

i "bah humbug" rock

[roach]

I'm just happy those bastards still let me run my giraffe slaughter house.

[mere1975]

I'm just happy those bastards still let me run my giraffe slaughter house.

single tear

[Rebecca]

If you ask me, horses are different from cows, pigs, and chickens not because they are cute, but because they have been natural guides and companions to humans for centuries. They are bred for their intellect, agility, and personality, not for meat production. They live long, fulfilling lives helping people, and to slaughter them and send them to France is no better than slaughtering your family dog when it gets old.


Giraffes, on the other hand, are fair game.


Re "delicious" becca

[squeezle]

If you ask me, horses are different from cows, pigs, and chickens not because they are cute, but because they have been natural guides and companions to humans for centuries. They are bred for their intellect, agility, and personality, not for meat production. They live long, fulfilling lives helping people, and to slaughter them and send them to France is no better than slaughtering your family dog when it gets old.

[anthropological lesson]
i'm not disagreeing, but historically and ecologically speaking, taboos against hippophagy (eating horse meat) is more closely tied to the horse's utility (transportation, farming, warfare) than it is to companionship. also at play is the fact that horses are to expensive (in terms of the amount of time and resources that it takes to maintain a horse) to be raised as food in most environments - cattle and sheep make more efficient sources of food. the roman catholic church even got involved in issueing a ban on eating the meat of horses (i always get suspiciopus when the RCC gets involved in this kind of thing). however, in environments where the utility of the horse is not a cricial factor and there are adequate resources to raise horses, horse meat is prized and considered more nutritious and tasty than beef.
[/anthropological lesson]

[sam]

I think something like this came up here or at work some time ago. I saw one site that argued that horses have a stronger flight instinct. This makes the process of slaughtering more difficult and many of them are still conscious for much of it. Another site claims that most slaughterhouses don't stun the animals because of kosher/halal restrictions even though the vast majority of the animals won't make it to kosher products. Thus they are subject to unnecessary pain even though the intent of those original rites/rules/restrictions was to provide a safer, more humane process. Other sites make the exact same claims for cattle and pigs.

My conclusion is that any strong opinion on this subject requires taking something on faith and nothing is tipping me one way or another. From a global agricultural resource point of view, we should all be eating locally grown whole grains, nuts and veggies. What fun is that?

[Dalya]

i think the bigger issue is that if americans dont want to eat horses, our horses shouldn't be slaughtered and shipped somewhere else. goes along with the domesticated/useful animal reasoning. most americans wouldnt eat a horse unless they needed to (no other food source), much like a dog.

i wish they would make cow/chicken/hog factory farms illegal, but thats not going to happen, so this is a small step.

i think there should be a limit on how much meat one company can produce or slaughter or whatever, per year. then there could be much higher quality, better tasting, and non-tortured meat. (something that i didnt realize is that salmonella doesnt naturally occur in raw meat, but it is there because of the unclean conditions of the animals' pens while theyre alive and in the slaughter-houses. gross.)

[roach]

I ate horse when I was in Russia, didn't much care for it. I was only 15 and didn't like half the food I like now. I might give it another go if it were served. and I was in a communist country. and they didn't tell me it was horse until after the eating of it.

[Dalya]

p.s. the human society is lobbying to get this bill passed that bans animal fighting (i think specifically cock fights and dog fights) and makes it a felony to participate in them and a crime (im not sure to what degree) to gamble on them).

who could fucking bet on dog fights? thats revolting. probably the grandchildren of people who attended lynchings.

[sam]

I thought Oklahoma's ban on cockfighting last year made it all 50 states? Making it & dog pits felonies sounds good to me.

[aquaphase]

I thought Oklahoma's ban on cockfighting last year made it all 50 states? Making it & dog pits felonies sounds good to me.

Naw, cockfighting is still legal in Lousiana and New Mexico.

Funny story, I was invited to a high-dollar cockfight within 12 hours of going to New Orleans a year ago. I lived in New Mexico for 17 years and wasn't even aware that it existed, let alone legal.

[squeezle]

I thought Oklahoma's ban on cockfighting last year made it all 50 states? Making it & dog pits felonies sounds good to me.

Naw, cockfighting is still legal in Lousiana and New Mexico.

Funny story, I was invited to a high-dollar cockfight within 12 hours of going to New Orleans a year ago. I lived in New Mexico for 17 years and wasn't even aware that it existed, let alone legal.

when i was young, there was a man that lived next to the burger place that raised fighting cocks, when you sat in your car eating your burger you could see all of his cages full of really mean birds