The US House Appropriations Committee has just voted to lift the ban on funding for federal inspections for horse slaughter, thus potentially paving the way for new US equine abattoirs to open up. I wrote extensively about the history of horsemeat in the USA in The Age of the Horse in order to try to …
Continue reading “No, Horse Slaughter Won’t Solve the US Welfare Problem – Here’s Why”
In The Age of the Horse I gave readers some idea of the ingenuity humans used to recycle the bodies of horses used in the nineteenth century west. Of course, this inventiveness was not restricted to the Victorian era nor to the more rapidly industrialised nations – and we’re still finding new uses for …
I thought it would be interesting to compile the horse welfare promises of this year’s US presidential candidate promises. Which platform is best for your horse? Hillary Clinton, Democrats “As president, Hillary will … Protect horses by ending the slaughter of horses for human consumption and cracking down on the practice of horse soring, in …
Continue reading “Trump, Stein or Clinton? How Would Your Horse Vote in 2016?”
Tons of low-grade Canadian horse meat were purchased and passed off as halal beef by the Dutch businessman who is now in custody as French authorities investigate the scandal in which horse meat from Romania wound up labelled as ground beef. (The Globe and Mail – and for my background piece on the scandal, Spiegel …
Continue reading “Department of Zero Surprises and Some Hope”
Composer Eve Harrison teamed up with Scottish schoolchildren to write a musical about the horse meat scandal, called The Unspeakable. If I weren’t on the move just now I would dig out a 17th century story in which Scottish children chased and stoned a man known to eat horse meat. (BBC) The FAO reports that …
Professional child jockeys (as young as 4) in Indonesia (SBS) Virtual racehorses on the game Digiturf sell for $7,000 and $9,000. (ESPN) The Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration goes ahead, although welfare concerns knock out some leading competitors. DIg into the comments here. (Tennessean) The number of horses slaughtered in Ireland this year appears to …
I’m usually sceptical about “horses stolen for meat” stories (unless they come from Florida), but this one rings true. A Romanian has been arrested in connection with the theft of several draft horses in eastern France, allegedly for the slaughter trade. Some of the horses were already being raised for meat. (The Horse) The English …
The Obama administration has included a proposal in its 2014 budget that would effectively ban the slaughter of horses for human consumption. Technically, the proposal would prevent money from being spent on inspection of horse slaughtering facilities. Without inspections, facilities could not legally operate. Read more in the New York Times. The Obama administration oversaw …
The US horsemeat and slaughter story is one I’m writing about in book two, and it remains stranger even than the recent European scandal. The latest twist involves YouTube. An employee (since sacked) at a New Mexico slaughterhouse that has been trying for over a year to get permission to process horses, video’d himself shooting …
Yes, we’re still deep in the horse meat scandal. You can now buy a “horse burger” fancy dress costume (Business Insider) Only 13% of Americans would consider eating horse meat (almost twice the percentage who would eat dog), whereas 34% would consider alligator lasagna (KTAR) Groups in Oklahoma want to build a horse abattoir. (SFGate.com …
