Horsemeat for Human Consumption

I've been thinking about this topic for a while because I am conflicted about it. As a child I clearly remember seeing horsemeat in the meat cases at the A&P (grocery store). And a while back I blogged about the special connection horses have been known to make with autistic kids and the use of horses in a therapeutic setting. My own experience riding a horse is limited to a single event as a teen riding through a truck patch, stealing green tomatoes, outside Chicago and is probably best saved for another blog. Suffice to say when a police car cruised through a vacant neighboring subdivision (still under construction), the horse identified my panic and got me safely away. The evidence (purloined green tomatoes) was fried up nicely and disappeared but in the heat of the escape (I don’t think the cop ever saw us) my shoe disappeared too. That’s the short version of my limited horseback riding adventure.

Back to the horsemeat for human consumption issue, restrictions on slaughtering horses and processing them for human consumption were lifted in 2011.  So even though it’s legal to slaughter and process horsemeat, I can still think of plenty of reasons not to eat horsemeat. There are not restrictions on the drugs given to horses to enhance their performance (in racing or pulling carriages) or ease their arthritis and these chemicals stay in their flesh and can be poisonous to us if we eat it. What if Mad Horse disease accompanies the consumption of horsemeat like Mad Cow is related to eating beef? How humane is it to kill and eat companion animals? I have chickens (with names) that I couldn't kill for food (but I still eat chicken). In other countries people eat insects and other animals that I wouldn't and in this country we eat animals (pork comes to mind) that other cultures find taboo.

On the plus side eating rare (uncooked) horsemeat is supposedly healthier than eating beef prepared rare. Horsemeat is supposedly sweeter than beef. I guess I am using supposedly in my writing as an indicator (to me and you) that eating horsemeat is something I have no intention of doing. I already avoid red meat, and after thinking about my chickens and writing this post I am seriously considering going combat vegetarian with my grandson, Jonas!