Mr. Dingdong
UNIV 1000
September 30, 2011
Horses
Many different countries eat horse meat. This may seem strange to Americans. But horse meat is actually better than beef in several ways. Horse meat has less fat and cholesterol and more iron. It is a somewhat dry meat so you must cook it with fat or grease to soften it up. Overseas horse meat is actually sold for around the same price as veal. Veal is a young cow so I would rather eat a horse. My friend Jay Riemenschneider eats horse all the time. Americans find this strange but I don’t see it much different than eating cattle. Our idea of horses as companion animals is what prevents us from eating horses. But other countries eat companion animals a lot. Eating cats, dogs, and horses is common in less developed countries. Developed countries eat horses too. The problem with the horse eating is the horses are harvested. The methods for slaughtering horses is inhumane because they kill the horses the same way they kill cattle which does not always work. Many horses are just left to bleed out. Bleeding out would not be fun even if you were a horse. Although, I’m sure cattle are also slaughtered inhumanely just as often. The problem here is that we like horses and don’t care as much about cattle. Horses seem to display more intelligence than your standard cow but who are we to judge. There are many people and organizations against horse slaughter. Several bills have been passed regulating horse slaughter but the practice itself is not illegal. And I don’t see why it would be unless we ban cattle slaughter as well. The demand of horse slaughter is only 1%. Horses being slaughtered inhumanely are because the horse slaughter people don’t want to pay for humane euthanasia. Some day we must ban horse slaughter or regulate it well enough to ensure that the horses are well cared