My Little Delicious Pony

Posted Fri, 12/17/2010 - 18:25 by Melissa

Guess what I had for dinner last night at a super secret supper club? Hint, "I'm so hungry I could eat a _____."

Yes, this is horse heart with truffles. Oh, I can just hear the gasps of horror right now. This was from Quebec, where it is legal. In most of Europe it's still eaten.

In California, if you are arrested for serving this, the minimum sentence is 2 years. To contrast, you could torture this animal and have sex with it and get less than a year.

Yes, I know horses are pretty and sparkly and we owe them something. But that's not logic- that's no better than basing a law on religious beliefs. And in fact such laws do have roots in religion. Horse meat has a long association with paganism and back when that was a major threat to Catholicism, the pope outlawed it.

Don't get me wrong. I like horses and I've ridden them since I was very young. When I was 14 I gave an impassioned speech in debate club about the horrors of horse slaughter. But a horse is no smarter than a pig. And if it were legal, I would eat my own horses. Many horses go lame or break their legs quite young. Instead of eating them, we often euthanize them and cremate them.That's too bad, because the meat is quite good. No gaminess, so it was a little like lean beef. Also, draft horses are much more practical if you are allowed to eat them sometimes. That's why some draft breeds are still thriving in Europe while they are mostly seen on museum farms here.

Back when I was 15

I like cows and pigs too...and I eat them.

During the dinner, a woman from Kazakhstan who grew up as a nomad said she was so happy to be eating this, since she hadn't had it for 15 years. She talked about her culture's complete reliance on the horse, which involves use for riding, blood, milk, and meat. There they treasure horse meat and offer up prayers to thank the horses for their gifts to humans.

The chefs at the dinner paired horse with another unjustly illegal ingredient, Tonka Beans. No, I wasn't going unpaleo here :) Tonka beans are not eaten like real beans, but like vanilla beans. Shavings of them are used as a flavoring that many describe as being close to vanilla. I found it otherworldly, but bizarrely reminecant of buttercream iced birthday cakes. These beans are illegal because they have an ingredient that's kind of like a blood thinner, but scientists generally agree that they are safe and they are used in Britain and France.

< sarcasm > Since there are no factory farms that are producing digusting and unsafe food whatsoever, the FDA has plenty of time to raid Michelin-starred restaurants like Alinea, which used to make desserts with Tonka. < /sarcasm >This is stupid. Tonka beans aren't even remotely unsafe. Sadly, Tonka beans don't have a lobby that would help get the stupid law repealed.

Comments

When you're ready for some

by haig (not verified) - 12/22/2010 - 13:40

When you're ready for some next level equine cuisine:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/plush/e5a7/

Haha, couldn't resist!

Well, I'm not an automated

by Lee (not verified) - 12/21/2010 - 03:45

Well, I'm not an automated spam nor am I a vegan but I must share with you that you folks are putting your health at very high risk for leukemia by eating horse. The vast majority of horse meat is poisonous. A RECENT STUDY, SURVEY and REPORT ALL CONFIRM HORSE MEAT IS CARCINOGENIC. One dose of bute (aka the "horse aspirin') renders horse meat toxic, there is NO withdrawal period, the meat is forever tainted.

STUDY
Food and Chemical Toxicology, Volume 48, Issue 5, May 2010, Pages 1270-1274 Association of phenylbutazone usage with horses bought for slaughter: A public health risk
Nicholas Dodman,DVM, Nicolas Blondeau, Ann M. Marini
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleListURL&_method=list&_Ar...

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs - prohibited as well Phenylbutazone, known as "bute," is a veterinary drug only label-approved by the Food & Drug Administration for use by veterinarians in dogs and horses. It has been associated with debilitating conditions in humans and it is absolutely not permitted for use in food-producing animals. USDA/FSIS has conducted a special project to for this drug in selected bovine slaughter plants under federal inspection. An earlier pilot project by FSIS found traces less than 3% of the livestock selected for testing, sufficient cause for this special project. There is no tolerance for this drug in food-producing livestock, and they and their by-products are condemned when it is detected. Dairy producers must not use this drug in food-producing livestock and if it is found, those producers will be subject to FDA investigation and possible prosecution.
FOOTNOTE: Bovine slaughterhouses report testing 1 in 600 carcasses for residual drugs. Awfully lax inspection but, hey, it's only your health, your life, at stake.

SURVEY
Horse Owner Survey Shows NSAID Use Trends
by: Edited Press Release
April 30 2009, Article # 14073

In a recent survey, 96% of respondents said they used nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) to control the joint pain and inflammation in horses, and 82% administer them without always consulting their veterinarian. More than 1,400 horse owners and trainers
were surveyed to better understand attitudes toward NSAIDs, in a project sponsored by Merial, the maker of Equioxx (firocoxib).
http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=14073
FOOTNOTE: TheHorse.com is a reputable large national equestrian publication and they found 96% of owners administer bute to their horses when needed. PERSONALLY, I do the same when my horses need pain or inflammation relief. A horse owner over 20 years, I don't know any horse owner who does not use bute.

REPORT
99 percent of horses that started in California last year raced on bute, according to Daily Racing Form. Bute is banned in the United States and Canada for horses intended for the food chain. That’s a permanent ban.
FOOTNOTE: The Form is an age old publication in racing world and would not report this if it were not true. I also know that the Campbell's Co (soup) quit using horse manure to grow mushrooms (for their soup) many years ago because the mushrooms were testing as laden with drugs. They'd been using manure from the track.... This is very real, people, read and BEWARE.

CONCLUSION
I know of equestrians who have died of leukemia because they themselves took a small dose or two of bute (stronger than our NSAIDS for pain), not realizing how dangerous it is for humans. The drug never leaves the body so eating horse means you are consuming it. Additional risks are from wormers, fly sprays, antibiotics, steroids and many other medications given to horses that were NEVER INTENDED for meat. Every package I have ever seen of any of these items shows the skull and crossbones and clearly states: "Not Intended for Use in Animals Intended for Human Consumption". The fact is that US horses are not raised as food nor are Canadian horses. The only way you could get safe horse meat would be if you know someone actually raising them WITHOUT any of those medications/remedies and that would be difficult because how do you keep them healthy with massive fly and worm infestations when no drugs/chemicals are used to keep those under control? And almost every horse injures himself just while living out in the pasture. That requires antibiotics and/or bute to manage the wound until it's healed - just like with humans. This is VERY REAL and VERY SERIOUS outside any of the cultural aspects. I hope you will inform your readers because you all REALLY NEED TO KNOW!

Yeah, that's why I haven't

by Melissa - 12/21/2010 - 08:45

Yeah, that's why I haven't eaten it in the past. I know American racehorses are pretty drugged up.

But not all horses are. It's too bad we can't slaughter ourselves.

It does seem you have an ax to grind though. Not all horses get bute and other drugs may or may not be dangerous. The paper above said the FDA only found residue in 8% of horses tested.

Last summer I had to put my

by Samantha Moore (not verified) - 12/19/2010 - 22:06

Last summer I had to put my young horse down. I had him euthanized for dangerous behavior, and I struggled for a long time before I came to the decision. But the worst part by far was seeing all his meat go to waste. I was really bitter than I couldn't even honor him in some little way by yes, having him butchered and properly preserved and eaten. I thought it was a terrible waste. I can't believe that the horse has become such a "sacred cow" in the United States. How sad. Thank you so much for posting this- your story about eating horses are a breath of fresh air and provide some measure of balance in this unnecessarily fraught issue of horse meat consumption. I hope they do some good.

While I take issue with the

by Odille Esmonde-Morgan (not verified) - 12/19/2010 - 13:22

While I take issue with the horses are not much smarter than dogs comment, I think they are, I don't have a huge problem with eating them, I just don't like the taste much, to me it is gamey. Similarly buffalo. I'e tried Kangaroo, that's not bad but an be a bit dry.

Thanks for this post,

by Diana Hsieh (not verified) - 12/19/2010 - 12:57

Thanks for this post, Melissa. Reading it was part of what motivated me to write a post opposing the horse slaughter ban for Modern Paleo. It's a bit of a rant, I must admit. It's just so galling to see people make the situation so much worse for the horses and their owners... just because they want to *feel* like they've done a good deed. Blech!

http://blog.modernpaleo.com/2010/12/perverse-effects-of-horse-slaughter-...

On the Korean island of Jeju

by Ron (not verified) - 12/19/2010 - 03:31

On the Korean island of Jeju there are quite a few horse meat restaurants- the Mongols took over the island at one point and basically used it as a giant horse pasture.

I've often thought it would be great to write a paper on how the diet of the Mongols directly contributed to their conquest- fermented dairy, nomadic so very little grains (except what they could raid, and obviously you wouldn't be getting many during your developmental years), they rode the same horses they ate, maybe took along some other animals...

I might be wrong on some of that, this isn't something I've really researched at all and I'm just making assumptions from what little I know of both historical and modern Mongolia. Sure would be interesting to study though.

I try to eat horse meat on a

by Tilen Krivec (not verified) - 12/18/2010 - 11:25

I try to eat horse meat on a weekly basis, way better than beef, cleaner, richer in minerals and good fatty acids, and freaking DELICIOUS! :)

I would eat horse. But I

by Luther Blissett (not verified) - 12/18/2010 - 11:21

I would eat horse. But I still feel a special reverence for them. but no need for their meat to go to waste. :D

I would never eat cat or dog.

I ate dog once in China with

by Gerry (not verified) - 12/18/2010 - 10:47

I ate dog once in China with the girl I was dating at the time and her dad. They were Belgian. Her dad said, "This tastes like horse meat. Plus a little like chocolate."

While you were out indulging,

by Andrew (not verified) - 12/18/2010 - 03:23

While you were out indulging, I was watching a documentary on the Lewis & Clark expedition. They roasted at least two horses along the way, and reported that it tasted quite good. They were also so desperate for meat when they got to the Columbia River that they traded with the native tribes for dogs to eat. That wouldn't strike me as particularly shocking, but... it was during the height of salmon season and they were complaining because there was nothing to eat.

I don't envision myself passing up salmon for dog anytime soon, but my general feeling remains that our recoil at eating certain animals is little more than arbitrary anthropomorphism. The less we imagine human characteristics, the less we object.

The Amundsen expedition- the

by Victoria (not verified) - 12/18/2010 - 11:43

The Amundsen expedition- the first group to successfully reach the South Pole- killed over half their original sled dogs to feed to themselves and the remaining dogs.

Awesome. I'd never eat dog

by Darrin (not verified) - 12/18/2010 - 00:26

Awesome. I'd never eat dog (due to completely irrational reasons - grew up with golden retrievers and wouldn't feel right), but anything else is open season in my book.

Horse slaughter must be state

by Tim (not verified) - 12/17/2010 - 23:10

Horse slaughter must be state to state? Here horses can't be sold for commercial slaughter, and the meat can't be re-sold at retail, but a rancher can take an old horse in for butcher. So horse meat is certainly out there. It is another "well meaning" law that simply needs to go.

Kudos for you for taking a

by Norseman (not verified) - 12/17/2010 - 23:06

Kudos for you for taking a stand against a non-native invasive species! What a messed up world we live in where knee-jerk reactionism dictates laws like this.

Wow! Very lucky. I've always

by Gene (not verified) - 12/17/2010 - 22:07

Wow! Very lucky. I've always respected horses but would definitely jump at the chance for some as you did. First I'm hearing of Tonka beans though...

I'm not one of the ones that

by Richard (not verified) - 12/17/2010 - 21:55

I'm not one of the ones that gasped. I think that's totally awesome.

I hope that I'll get to try a few out someday, too.

Ah! I've been waiting for

by Victoria (not verified) - 12/17/2010 - 21:13

Ah! I've been waiting for something like this since you posted that someone asked you to store some horse meat in your chest freezer!

I had horse once, in Japan- horse sashimi. It was tasty, though at some point my mind overrode my palate and I had a slight 'Oh my gosh, I'm eating a horse' moment. I don't think it's true for all the horse meat served there, but I believe they do breed and raise some animals purely for meat.

Contrary to you, at 14 I wrote a HS research paper about why banning horse slaughter would be a BAD idea. I've had horses since I was ten, and as far as I can remember I've been on the pro-slaughter side. It's an argument very passionately fought be many in the equine community, with the loudest mouths being the anti-slaughter contingent.

My one concern about eating horse meat would be the source. If you had a look at the horses that are currently sold for meat (now being shipped to Canada or Mexico to be killed... now THAT I am opposed to), they don't look very appetizing. My mother's big, fat, lame, quarter horse though... I've told her many times that she looks pretty delicious.

blah blah blah

by your leopard frock (not verified) - 12/17/2010 - 20:21

blah blah blah

Oooo I have always wondered

by Michael (not verified) - 12/17/2010 - 19:56

Oooo I have always wondered what horse tasted like.
Much to horror of folks around me of course...shame.

here's a funny story about

by Paul (not verified) - 12/17/2010 - 19:18

here's a funny story about horses on theoatmeal

Why We Should Be Eating Horses
http://theoatmeal.com/story/eat_horses

Alors tu étais au Québec! I

by Sebastien (not verified) - 12/17/2010 - 19:06

Alors tu étais au Québec!

I didn't realize that horse meat was illegal in the US as I'm used to eat it from time to time here in Quebec and it's really no big deal. We have it in grocery stores next to beef.

I don't really stay updated

by Richard (not verified) - 12/18/2010 - 00:48

I don't really stay updated on horse law, but I do remember a few years ago the animal rights crowd was up in arms because the anti-horse butchering policies in the United States weren't working. The horses were still being slaughtered -- the owners were just shipping them to Canada first where they were sold to slaughterhouses.

They were trying to get the shipment of live horses to Canada banned, but I imagine they failed and this still happens frequently.