Legalized Slaughter of Horses for Human Consumption?

[anthriel]

I think people easily take anything of the "I don't do that" vein to be judgmental, and I think at least some of the blame for that touchiness lies with the fact that probably all of us have, at some point, encountered someone who was judgmental as they said that they didn't do a certain thing, even if it was back in primary school when the resident little wasp said that she didn't sleep with her teddy anymore.

But you see, tone counts. The wasp in your example says that "she" doesn't sleep with her teddy anymore, and I can just hear her snotty little tone. When I get caught in the not drinking thing, it's inevitably "do you want a drink?"... "No, thank you, not right now" (with a smile). "WHY? Don't you drink?"... "Well, not a whole lot anymore". And then they get mad. I've learned to accept a drink and just carry it around.

My mom was hoppin' mad on a family vacation a couple of years ago that I wasn't drinking with them. She said it made it uncomfortable for HER to drink. Really? I didn't say a word to them. Why can't I comfortably drink my tea and her drink her beer and have no one even care??

I dunno. People are weird.

Maybe it is because many meat eaters, if they stop to think about it, doesn't think that they'd be able to kill an animal for food, and they feel a bit defensive about it? I'm sure there are many, many reasons.

I think this might be very close to the point, here.

Uhm, I was going to write more, but I have to go run errands. So if the post is a little weird, blame time constraints.

Suuuure, Griffy. Your posts are never normally weird, uh huh.

[River]

[ I've learned to accept a drink and just carry it around.

Totally. One glass of wine that I might or mihgt not finish, and suddenly everyone leaves me alone. For some reason, just having the glass makes everything better.

Maybe I should try that with apiece of meat someday, but I'd probably lose my appetite. The really odd thing is, while the thought of meat on MY plate and in MY mouth makes my gut churn, I really don't give a crap about anyone else eating it. Though there was that one time at a local ski resort I saw an entire pig roasting on an enormous grill, and the servers removing bits to give to happy customers. That was a bit much. I didn't have to say anything; S just let me drag him to a picnic table where I could just not see it.

Oddly enough, I never, ever had a problem with dissection projects in junior high. Probably because I've always been a **** for science and, more importantly, the animals were totally and absolutely not for eating.

[anthriel]

I saw an entire pig roasting on an enormous grill, and the servers removing bits to give to happy customers.

Errggh. Yeah, that would do it for me, too. When I was in New England a few years back, I was served a whole lobster, with its little eyeballs and antennae and such intact. Actually, it was a "her" lobster, because it had roe inside, and the woman next to me practically attacked my plate in her zest to eat those eggs.

I, of course, got a little distracted wiggling its little legs, and when I had teased it apart, tugging on a tendon to get its claws to move. Yes, I don't mind dissecting stuff either, and the design of the thing was interesting. My mom glared at me across the table (there was an incident with a Thanksgiving turkey she really likes to bring up over and over), and I dutifully ate the wee sea creature.

I haven't ever eaten lobster again, though. Nor shrimp, since we had some in our fish tank for a while. They are cool little creatures!... and once I understood how neat they were, the thought of eating them was suddenly not so wonderful.

I'll become a vegetarian by default, I think.

[River]

Oh yeah, watching other people eat lobster was pretty traumatic for me too. Looked just like a dissection...and then they put it in their mouths.

[vison]

I could -if I wanted to - tell you guys all you ever wanted to know about slaughtering animals and butchering animals and skinning and disposing of the offal, etc. Lots more than you EVER wanted to know. I won't. I could tell you a great deal about rendering plants. If I wanted to. But I won't.

I have personally, with my own little hands, killed thousands of mink. I have killed rabbits and helped to kill cows and sheep. We don't do butchering at home any more, but I wish we did. It seems more humane than loading an animal onto a truck, but reality is that we aren't set up for it.

Contrary to what many here have said, I have encountered many vegetarians and vegans who do believe they are morally superior to meat eaters. Maybe it's because of the business I'm in. Probably.

Human beings are omnivores. Not eating meat is a choice, and not a moral issue in my eyes.

Our ancestors were probably most herbivores because meat was hard to get, but who knows for sure? (I just broke down and bought the last Jean Auel book so maybe Ayla can settle this . . . . ) Meat is nutrient dense and for most of us it's a good thing.

We are not allowed -by law - to feed the mink carcasses back to the mink. We wouldn't, anyway. It would be madness. We have enough trouble dealing with disease as it is. The carcasses leave here in a truck and go to the big rendering plant. We do believe they are incinerated, not rendered, but I cannot swear to that.

If you all recall, it was the practice of adding animal protein - specifically poorly rendered sheep carcasses - to cattle feed that led to the horrible outbreak of BSE in the UK.

[yovargas]

Why can't I comfortably drink my tea and her drink her beer and have no one even care??

...

People are weird.

You've answered your own question.

[anthriel]

Contrary to what many here have said, I have encountered many vegetarians and vegans who do believe they are morally superior to meat eaters. Maybe it's because of the business I'm in. Probably.

Probably.

Meat is nutrient dense and for most of us it's a good thing.

Actually, it's a good thing for me. <sigh> I have issues with my blood sugar, and often when I try to be "good" with what I eat, I bump low... I've actually fainted twice in the last year or so (once at work, that was fun, NEVER faint in a hospital!), both times when I was trying to cut down on fat in my diet.

I stuck to a vegetarian diet for a year, just after I got home from Germany (so I was about 19??), and it was HARD for me to do.

I seem to need protein, and fat, to stabilize my blood sugar. I know you can get protein and fat from veggies, but it is much harder to effect a "quick fix" when I'm bumping low. Other than just being lazy (and I am VERY lazy about food), being a vegetarian would be hard for me to do.


So no one's going to tease me about my dream??

[anthriel]

Why can't I comfortably drink my tea and her drink her beer and have no one even care??

...

People are weird.

You've answered your own question.

I love it when I do that.

[vison]

anthriel, I'm teasing you about your dream!

Um.

OK.

Now, that's over.

[anthriel]

Well, I knew SOMEONE would.

[River]

And then, on the other end of the metabolic spectrum, I've never suffered for my diet. Nor do I take supplements. This confuses doctors even after they've declared me fit and healthy.

At the end of the day, you should eat what keeps you healthy.

vison, I've encountered self-righteous vegetarians and vegans. Some have even told me I'm not really vegetarian because my motives aren't the same as theirs.

I've also encountered some very self-righteous meat-eaters. Really. There's something about food that gets people's pants in a knot.

ETA: major x-post with vison and anthy...

[Frelga]

People get invested in their choices. Some people who choose with the majority feel that a minority choice is an attack on law and order or something. Some people who make a minority choice feel that it makes them superior and that failure to acknowledge that superiority is like spitting in their kombucha. Apple practically built their business on this stuff. (I'm typing this on the iPhone, btw).

My favorite people are the ones who have fun doing whatever they bloody please. In an ethical fashion.

[SirDennis]

Kombucha: Nasty to look at but makes a nice tea. In the hand it feels more like raw meat than raw meat does.

Did anyone get a chance to watch the clips I posted, bottom of last page?

[Maria]

I don't watch clips at work.

When I was 18 or so and attending the university I eventually graduated from, I almost failed the human anatomy class because I couldn't make myself dissect the cat they provided. I've always been crazy about cats, and my most favorite one ever had disappeared a year or so before.... and the cat they gave me had a face just like his! They leave the fur on the face and paws, so I just couldn't get past it. Every time I'd look into that dead kitty's face, I'd remember my "Striper" and couldn't stand it. I quit going to labs and tried to learn all the muscles from diagrams, but it wasn't the same and of course the final was IN the lab going from cat to cat. I could barely look at any of them.

I had no trouble with any other creature given to dissect in any other class. But make those creatures fur faced kitty cats, and I .... just.... had... to..... leave.

You know, if I'd been thinking back then, I could have covered up the head and paws and probably been OK. Hindsight 20:20.

[Lalaith]

I did, SirDennis. Funny!

Maria, dissecting the cat didn't bother me, and you know I'm crazy about cats. I'm not sure why. You know what did bother me? Crayfish and grasshoppers. Too crunchy!

[Cenedril_Gildinaur]

Human beings are omnivores. Not eating meat is a choice, and not a moral issue in my eyes.

Our ancestors were probably most herbivores because meat was hard to get, but who knows for sure? (I just broke down and bought the last Jean Auel book so maybe Ayla can settle this . . . . ) Meat is nutrient dense and for most of us it's a good thing.

Our ancestors ate meat when the could get it, but they couldn't always get it. And we eat cows because they could catch cows and then later domesticate cows.

For all we know cheetahs could taste like chocolate heroin, but a group of hunters with spears would have a tough time hunting one and so we don't eat those.

[Maria]

Looked what popped up on craigslist today:

Wanted hungry horses
Have you got horses that you can no longer afford to feed? I have grass that never got baled this year and plenty of good hay for unwanted horses. I'm disabled and spend most of my day with the horses i already have. I've got room for 10 or 12 more and trailers to haul them in. My horses are all fat and healthy and yours could be also. Email or call my cell @ 660-676-6012

http://columbiamo.craigslist.org/grd/2732267259.html

Guess what he's probably up to?

[Maria]

I got curious about what the people on the forum I occasionally visit, homesteadingtoday.com, had to say about this and they were almost unanimously for it. A lot of them have seen the consequences of the ban up close and personal.

A few things stuck out: A state park in Alabama has had to institute a head count for all horses going in and going out of the park. People have been dumping them, and now there is a population of starving horses in the park.

And horsemeat is becoming quite popular in Japan now that tuna prices are going up. However, the Japanese require that their horses be young, healthy and shipped over live via air transport. There they stay in an equine feedlot until all drugs have passed from their system. They pay well enough that some people are raising horses especially for that market!


And this is a really good article on the subject of horses and their plight during the slaughter ban written earlier this year. http://sidelinesnews.com/blogs/laurenga ... -pt-1.html

And another article stating that PETA approves lifting the ban! http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/1130/ ... 8.facebook
Who'd have thunk it???

All in all, most folks think this will put a bottom back in place in the horse market. Instead of an unwanted horse being worthless, it will now have at least some value to the kill buyers. Not that they buy thin horses, but at least people won't let them get so terribly pitiful before they finally sell them.

[vison]

You know what? I've already heard from people who want to start "rescuing" horses so they can't be eaten. Rescuing: as in, taking on horses they can't afford to feed and have no proper place to keep them!!!

Jeezily.

And horses do NOT thrive on ALL pasture. Horses need decent grass but will founder if they get too much of it. They need to be owned by people who understand them. OR they need to be turned loose on rangeland to be left to live or die as nature sees fit.

The horse is a wonderful animal but I swear he attracts more loony people than dogs do and that, I will tie to.

[River]

Kombucha: Nasty to look at but makes a nice tea. In the hand it feels more like raw meat than raw meat does.

Did anyone get a chance to watch the clips I posted, bottom of last page?

Yeah, finally. I like the glowing eyes, but I'm a little too fond of things like cheese and ice cream. Real cheese and ice cream. S brought home a vegan "ice cream"once. He lived to tell the tale but he reads the labels a little more carefully now.

Vegan ice cream. Whoever came up with that should be jailed for Willful Abuse of Food and Chemistry.