A Few Words Of A Secondary Education Major Are...
........an encouraging step toward animal liberation.......
....To claim that slaughtering horses is any more inhumane than slaughtering cows, chickens, or pigs is either a statement of ignorance or a lie.......
........For a representative to vote for this piece of legislation but still consume animal flesh is hypocritical, irrational and just plain barbaric.......
Evidently Greg Hasn't A Clue As To What The HSUS Has In Store For Animal Agriculture,
But He Has Pointed Out That Cow, Chicken And Pig Slaughterhouses Will Be In The Lineup.
A Precedence Is Being Set For Use In The Future And No Doubt It Is....
........an encouraging step toward animal liberation.......
By Greg Hafer
On Sept. 7 the U.S. House of Representatives passed the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act. Though it would be an encouraging step toward animal liberation if this act passed in the Senate in November, the motivation behind the act is misguided. According to a Sept. 8 Chicago Tribune article entitled "House Oks bill to end horse slaughtering," there are only three horse slaughter houses in the United States. All three are foreign owned and export most of their meat to Europe and Japan.
As small as the American horse meat industry is, the controversy over horse meat is nothing new. Three years ago, similar legislation was debated in Texas. Jerry Finch, founder of Habitat for Horses and proponent of anti-horse meat legislation, was quoted in the Christian Science Monitor saying, "Horses are not like cows and pigs… They're like pets, and the idea of eating them is repulsive."
To recognize the absurd logic behind supporters of this act, one must understand the horse meat industry. It is true that horses are not like other farm animals, but not in the same way Finch described them. The real differences can found on horse meat company Viande Richelieu's Web site, www.vianderichelieu.com. According to the site, when compared to lean beef, horse meat has less calories, cholesterol and fat. It also has a higher content of protein, B12, zinc and iron. The natural tenderness of horse meat also makes it easier to digest. Plus, horses are not susceptible to mad cow disease.
Horse meat's sweet flavor, similar to that of deer meat, lends itself well to many foreign dishes. In Iceland, horse meat is often used in stews and fondues. Germany has a traditional sweet and sour braised horse meat dish called sauerbraten. In Italy, horse meat steaks are a delicacy. The Japanese serve horse meat raw as sashimi. In Quebec, horse meat is often available at grocery stores. If American meat eaters thought rationally they would embrace horse meat for its taste and health benefits over pork, chicken and beef.
Yet, according to the same Chicago Tribune article, Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) supports the legislation to eliminate this industry not because he hates the taste of horse burgers, but because it is "a grossly inhumane business."
The major arguments against the horse meat industry in the U.S. are that horses are "like pets" and therefore the industry is "inhumane." Pigs, however, are actually smarter than horses and have cognitive abilities equivalent to three-year-old humans. Likewise, chickens' intellect is on par with cats, dogs and some primates. Cows are also considered intelligent creatures with long memories, distinct personalities and socially complex hierarchies.
As far as the "inhumane" argument, pigs, chickens, and cows are drugged, beaten, and confined in small pens and cages until they are murdered at the slaughterhouse. To save money on food, pig farmers will often grab the smallest piglets by the legs and beat them against the ground until they die. Chickens' beaks are seared off by a hot blade so the chickens do not try to kill each other when they go insane from being caged. To mark cows for identification, hot fire irons are used to sear their flesh. Male calves' have their testicles ripped from their scrotums, while cows raised for beef have their horns cut or burned off. All of this is done without painkillers.
The bottom line is that all factory farmed animals are "like pets." To claim that slaughtering horses is any more inhumane than slaughtering cows, chickens, or pigs is either a statement of ignorance or a lie. Even though the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act is a good thing, I doubt that the 263 House members that voted for it are vegetarians or even animal rights activists. For a representative to vote for this piece of legislation but still consume animal flesh is hypocritical, irrational and just plain barbaric.
Greg Hafer is a junior, Secondary Education major and a member of KUR.
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