Groups target new horse law

[NVMojo]

Isn't it ironic how the Bush administration dislikes the French but will sell them our wild horses for consumption??

ELKO - Fifty-five organizations are calling for Congress to pass legislation rescinding the new law allowing wild horses to be sold for slaughter.

The Humane Society of the United States issued a statement Monday on behalf of the organizations against the measure, which opens the door to horses being sold at auction.

Meanwhile, U.S. Bureau of Land Management's Elko office is continuing preparations for a roundup of wild horses beginning Wednesday.

snip ...


The society contends the provision allowing U.S. Bureau of Land Management to sell the wild horses was "slipped in surreptitiously" by Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., and passed by an unsuspecting Congress.

In response, Burns has said he believed most horses would wind up being adopted, not slaughtered, but his intent was to spur the BLM to get serious about its adoption program.

snip...

Although the 55 organizations oppose the sale, Nevada ranchers and Nevada officials support the provision because herd numbers are too high and affect grazing and water availability for cattle and wildlife.

Nevada Cattlemen's Association President Preston Wright said when news of the bill first broke he was excited, and felt it would benefit ranchers.

"We were getting hate e-mail," association Executive Director Rachel Buzzetti said Monday, reporting she also heard from national media on the wild horse issue.

more...
http://www.elkodaily.com/articles/2004/12/14/news/local/news1.prt

[HuffleClaw]

1. well, as they say, "you can lead a horse to slaughter..."

[donheld]

2. Welcome to DU HuffleClaw

[xchrom]

3. wild horses for food...

grotesque.

[whosinpower]

4. As a horse lover, and owner

I would tend to agree - HOWEVER....thus far, Mad cow disease is not found in animals that are not cloven hoofed. As a safety precaution, horse meat has been increasingly consumed in allot of Europe.

Up here, in Canada, there were guys making a small fortune shipping horses over to Italy for consumption.

If I were faced with the degree of Madcow in beef up here....I would also tend to look elsewhere for my protein needs. Just my op.

[da_chimperor]

6. I've had horse a number of times before, and it's pretty damn good

They are very nice animals, but there's no denying that they have significant culinary value, even if they're not eaten in the states.

[Kolesar]

5. If this annoys you, then do what I do

I don't eat beef. I don't support the ranching economy. Without money, they will lose power.

[oldcoot]

15. If you pay taxes, you are supporting western ranchers

Many western ranchers are able to graze their cattle on public land for very little money thanks to the American taxpayer. Ironically, most beef consumed in the United States is not from cattle that has grazed on public land.

[neweurope]

7. I would like to help. Would somebody please draw up a letter of protest

(my English isn't good enough) and give me some addresses to mail them to? Or give me a link where I can find them? I would like to rally people here in Germany.

This is so sad. To many of us your wild horses were a symbol of freedom. Well, they go down with the rest.

:cry:

[HereSince1628]

8. Interesting example of clash of cultures.

Anyone know how the US got separated from the idea of edible equines?

I found this by googling... anyone read this?

<Snip>
Author Marvin Harris also covers cultural evolution in his book, The Sacred Cow and the Abominable Pig, but only in relation to our food habits. Consider the diverse culinary practices around the world.

Many people eat rats and cockroaches while most Americans nearly retch at the thought. Similarly Americans disdain the thought of eating dogs, cats, or horses. Hindu people think we are basically cannibals to eat beef, and the Moslems think we sin terribly when we eat pork.

Most of us in America may dislike the idea of eating horses, but according to Harris, horse meat has gone through many surges of popularity and unpopularity, both in America and Europe, according to economic trends. Horse meat becomes popular when other meats are more expensive, and becomes unpopular when the cost of other types of meat are more economical.

<snip>

[FlaGranny]

9. Well, we Americans do tend

to not want to eat our pets. As far as horse meat goes, it is cheap because it is NOT raised for food in the US. People who buy horses for meat know where to get the cheap horses - at auctions where they auction off old, lame, and wild horses. As soon as someone starts a commercial horse meat operation, the prices would soar. Horse meat would be just as expensive, perhaps moreso, than beef. Ranchers would probably already be raising horses for meat if they thought it would be more profitable than cattle. I doubt that it would be. Horses seem to be a bit more finicky in their needs than cattle.

[Runcible Spoon]

10. kick

:kick:

[Pert_UK]

11. Hang on a minute.....

You can hunt wild deer.....

You can eat beef and pork and chicken from battery-farmed animals that live appalling lives before being horrifically and inefficiently slaughtered....

But killing wild horses for food is wrong?

I'm clearing missing something here......Might it be hypocrisy?

I'm beginning to wish I'd bought that Donkey Sausage instead of wild boar the last time the French market came to town.....no, really.

[neweurope]

12. No, that's not hypocrisy :)

Your point of view seems logical, but logic cannot explain the age old fascination and love humans have for horses. Horses ARE different.

In Sibiria people say that horses are the messengers of the Gods. I believe that, also :)

[FlaGranny]

13. Therefore, does it follow

that apes, dolphins, dogs, and cats should also be acceptable and widely available meat sources? As I said, people don't want to eat certain animals - the ones we have a special affinity for. Most of humanity will eat anything when they are starving and I have no argument with that, but well-fed people put limits on the kinds of creatures they are willing to eat. What's wrong with that?

I love my dog - I will not voluntarily eat dog meat. I once had horses that I loved - I will not eat horse meat. The fact is, one animal is NOT better or worse than another. In reality we get emotionally attached to some of them and who is to say we should not be repulsed at the thought of eating them?

Edit: Not to mention the fact that the wild horses are a part of our heritage.

[ernstbass]

14. well said FlaGranny

[Pert_UK]

17. I take your point but.....

I'm afraid that I have a rather hard-nosed attitude towards meat eating - if you're going to eat animals and believe that it's OK, then it does seem hypocrictical (or at least fairly arbitrary) to decide not to eat some rather than others.

Pigs have been shown to be hugely intelligent and affectionate creatures and yet most people don't seem to have a problem with eating them. Certainly there are good reasons for not eating apes (they really are genetically TOO close to us and are also quite endangered) but I have no problem with eating dogs or cats.

However, I do realise that this is a personal decision and I'm not REALLY going to tell anybody that they SHOULD be eating horse/dog/whatever. I just think that it's a personal decision, and definitely not a moral one with any secure basis. I think you'd struggle to persuade me that here was anything more wrong about eating horse than eating pig or cow.

And as for dolphins, I'll leave that to Cartman from South Park....

"If dolphins are so smart, how come they live in igloos?. Intelligent and friendly on some rye bread with mayonnaise more like...."

[Caoimhe]

16. Horses are different.

I have no data to back this up, but I honestly think that horses are just plain smarter than other animals that we eat. They have the loyalty of a family dog if given the chance. Besides that, the horses I have seen that are sent to slaughter are very unhealthy, skinny, often with lingering, untreated injuries. Behind my work used to be a transitional corral for these poor creatures. The owner never got any veterinary help for them because they were destined for the slaughterhouse. I called the animal control many times, but nothing was really done. There were often horses with broken limbs that had healed wrong, or that had fought with a barbed wire fence and lost. The saddest was a beautiful old gelding with a tattoo "US Army" on his hip. Guess he couldn't pass the muster anymore. What a terrible fate for an old soldier.

One such pathetic horse he got at auction had a foal the next morning. He had no idea she was pregnant. He had tied her in a tiny stall and she didn't have enough room, and she either kicked the baby or layed on it. The poor foal had a head injury and though he could stand up, he would spin in one direction. He'd bump into things. He couldn't stay focused enough to find her milk. After the owner decided that the foal was disabled, too disabled to sell, he shot it right there in the corral with it's mamma. The next day she went to slaughter, her use as a mother gone.

I think there are other ways of getting protein. Don't you?