No funding has been earmarked for the inspections in the appropriations bill and the estimated $5 million price tag will be paid by U.S. taxpayers even though all the meat will be exported to foreign markets. This will take away from funding for vital food assistance, food safety and education programs on which many U.S. families rely.The slaughter industry is broken. BROKEN. It is bad enough for cows and other meat animals, let alone horses. In our quest to have cheap meat, we have supported mass-production where animals are crammed together on feed lots and then shipped to places where they are "humanely" slaughtered. That leads to disease and the antibiotics and such that go into preventing disease from spreading in close-in populations.
That is somewhat more regulated than the horse industry. As the post on Forbes points out, there is no way to regulate what has been injected into your average pleasure horse, let alone race horses.
The other thing that we as humans (even those outside the horse community) needs to think about is how to approach what we eat. Eat local. Raise your own if you can. I can't--no land and nowhere near enough freezer space--but I can make good meat choices and Steve and have made a commitment to do that as much as possible. My friend Tom raises two cows every year to split with three other families. Why? "I know what goes in them that way," he says.
The other thing is that little karma thing. I know, I know. So West Sonoma County of me to bring it up, right? But if the last thing your dinner remembers is terror, how much of that leaks like poison into the meat you're eating? And how much of that energy gets transferred with every bite of that steak?
I may not get all of this right, but I can try to change my little corner of the world. That's a start and an easy bite for most of us to take. Pun so very absolutely intended.
7 comments:
Love the post. Every little thing you can do makes a difference. It's hard, in this crap economy, for many people to buy, for example, free range beef as opposed to what's available at Wal-Mart, so I don't judge those that can't afford better...I just wish we had better regulations so EVERYONE could afford cruelty-free meat. And, well, you already know how I feel about horse slaughter:) You brought up another excellent point though.
It will cost us more to regulate such an industry-and this industry can never be truly regulated, because horses are not raised to be food. That's not an emotional statement by the way-that's a fact. We put substances in our horses to keep them healthy and comfortable, and most of those substances are not safe for humans (or anything else) to ingest in their meat.
Sorry! I don't mean to keep going off on these tangents...
Yet another good post. We here at che BR aren't regular consumers of beef. DN3 hates beef, and I tired of the poor quality meat that Uncle Sam's Navy served, so have, for the most part, lost my taste for it. Lot's of chicken and pork here (although I'm sure they aren't any better off than cows).
With that said, I've been around enough cows to understand why humans eat them. They have little redeeming value beyond that.
Sarah, you are welcome to go off on tangents (though I don't think this qualifies) on my blog any time. Dave says anyone who eats horse meat deserves what they get, but he's a little hard over on the subject.
Aren't you, Dave?
And Dave.. I love my beef. I tried to be a vegetarian a long (oh so long) time ago, when I was growing up in Berkeley. I failed.
The thing is I know there is good, local, humanely processed meat in Sonoma County. And if there isn't, we need a whole lot less vineyards to make it so.
Yes, there is no gray area with respect to my feelings on the consumption of horseflesh.
And while I feel that cows should be consumed, I don't think their lives should be spent living in inhumane conditions, with terror being the last emotion they experience.
Glad to here that growing up Berkeley didn't have any long lasting effects. :)
The slaughter industry for other animals isn't as inhumane as most people think. If the animals are afraid, it actually causes the meat to have a discoloration to it and the carcass has to be discarded. Slaughterhouses try their best to make sure the animals aren't feeling any fear/stress. This isn't to say it's a nice process, but it's a lot more humane and cleaner than people think. :)
As for horses, there are just too many drugs and other supplements that are given to them that aren't supposed to be use in animals for meat consumption.Think of the supplements such as Regumate or Surpass...these need to be given with gloves on, and women are suggested to keep from handling it. There's no way to know their drug history.
I just found your blog from another one and I must say...this was very well written and very thoughtful AND TRUTHFUL. Yes. Karma....something to think about. Do I really wish to eat meat anymore? Nope. I have now gone without eating any kind of meat for a week and I already feel SO MUCH better! I did this once, about two years ago, and my horses were much more friendly toward me. This time, I hope to make it permanent.
~~Cheryl Ann~~(new follower)
Where are you in Sonoma? We're heading up to Napa for Christmas. My sister-in-law has 10 acres of Merlot up there, by Angwin.
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