DISCLAIMER: The Damien Zone is AGAINST eating horses or killing horses for meat. We accept, however, that some people do. We cannot change that, but we can inform the rest of the people that this horse meat scare in not true and that – as sad as it may sound – having slaughterhouses for horses might not be as horrible as most people think.
Recently, this article has appeared on the NEWS TARGET website. News Target is an even more moronic version of the National Enquirer for people who believe in strange and stupid things.
“You might have to train your taste buds to get used to horse meat soon, because FYI: The U.S. government just approved the operation of horse meat slaughterhouses to produce meat for human consumption. (NOT ACTUALLY TRUE)
“New Mexico, Missouri and Iowa are just some of the areas where horse meat plants are expected to be approved by the USDA. While horse meat, technically, can’t be legally sold in the United States for human consumption, it may still turn up in the US food supply because it can be sold to Mexico, then re-labeled and shipped back to the USA as a low-cost meat filler. This has already been documented occurring in Europe, where meatballs sold in European grocery stores were found to me made of horse meat. ” (THOSE CASES WERE ACCIDENTAL and DNA MEAT TESTING PREVENTS THIS FROM HAPPENING)
You can read the rest of this lunacy and fringe craziness on their website. I will not provide a link because I don’t believe in helping websites that invent horrific lies to get advertisement clicks for money.
Nothing in this article is TRUE except for the fact that horses can now be slaughtered in the USA whereas it was indirectly illegal to do so for many years.
There never was a BAN on horse slaughter in the USA. Rather, there was no funding for USDA meat inspectors to inspect horse meat. If you don’t have US Govt inspectors, you don’t have a meat product — end of story.
Last year, US President Obama signed a very large farm bill. The bill contained at least a hundred elements inherent to farming in the USA. One small aspect of that bill was to again provide funds which allowed for FDA meat inspectors for horses. This means that there is now a budget for inspectors to INSPECT horse meat. A few slaughterhouses have opened up to exploit this new farming legislation, but this in no way means you will be eating horse meat without your knowledge — it will NOT happen.
As much as it sickens me to say it. Having horse slaughterhouses in the USA is better than not having them. Let me explain.
Horses are going to be slaughtered regardless of how much anyone protests. There are far too many unwanted or lame or sick horses in the USA and sadly, while euthanasia is a better option, most of these animals go to slaughter. Unless Americans are prepared to put down their horses with lethal injections or care for them until they die from natural causes, there will be horse slaughter. It’s a cultural thing. Some people eat horse meat regularly whereas some people eat or do not eat pig meat. It would be great to save all the pigs and lambs and cows, but it’s not going to happen in the near or distant future.
Previous to these new slaughterhouses in the USA, horses who were sent to slaughter, regardless of age, or sex, or lameness or sickness, were packed onto cattle trucks and driven to Mexico or Canada for slaughter because they could not be slaughtered in the USA without certified inspectors were on the premises.
Almost always, very lame or sick horses were packed like sardines into these cars for days and days and days with no food or water. The trucks meandered around the USA gathering up enough horses so as to be fully loaded when they reached the border.
Many horses, some dying, stood for 5,6,7 or more days before they were let out of the car to the pens of the slaughterhouse. At the very least, allowing for horse slaughter in the USA, as sick as it is, has saved many horses from the horror of that experience.
Also, horse meat is like any other meat in that you do not have to BUY it if you prefer not to EAT it. No horse meat will be added as a filler meat (IN THE USA) to any product except perhaps dog food unless it is clearly labeled as such. There is no food company in the USA who will try to sneak horse meat into your mouth because they would be out of business in a one minute. No meat company would ever take this risk. The meat is constantly checked fro DNA.
Part of the FDA inspectors job is to send samples to labs where DNA tests are performed on batches to make sure that beef is beef and pork is pork and chicken is chicken. The odds of something like BUBBA BURGER trying to sneak horse meat filler into your JULY 4th picnic are zero.
This propaganda is spread by anti-meat activists intent on frightening, intimidating, and outraging Americans.
All of the stories you have read about horse meat in Wendy’s burgers etc are hoaxes. Yes, there was horse meat found in some burgers in Burger King restaurants in the UNITED KINGDOM, but that was a mistake which was quickly remedied in spite of the fact that the restaurant involved tried to cover up this information to save their reputations.
My own opinion is that horses should not be sold for meat and they should not be slaughtered for human consumption. My heart, however, tells me that if the eating of horses by some people is inevitable, it’s better to spare the animal the agony of a long and painful ship to the border.
My advice to horse owners out there is to be wary of people who want to buy your horses. People who advertise themselves as “carriage horse” or “adoption homes” or “pleasure horse buyers” are often scammers now that they can turn a buck off of meat. Remember that horse meat is cheap and anyone who offers you a large sumn for your horse is usually legitimate, but those who offer a few hundred dollars are meat killers.
