We don’t raise horses in this country for food they are not raised the same as food animals are. We give our horses medications which are banned from use in food animals.
We do not eat our companions in the US . It is calculated that it is estimated over 150,000 US horses were sent to slaughter in Canada and Mexico alone last year... race horses straight off the track and full of banned substances, riding horses, show horses, family pets, etc... all of which have been given over their lifetime drugs like Bute, Ivermectin, Lasic, Furosemide, etc...
The slaughter process, is even worse for horses as cows/steers will stand still with their heads lowered when stressed (every species goes to slaughter “cleaned” and thus all already frantically hungry) , and usually only a single captive-bolt shot to the head to render it insensible to pain during slaughter needed. Horse are a different story and throw their heads wildly around making it much harder to render insensible to pain with one shot ( a stun), and often has to be shot repeatedly in the head again and again (and a horses brain to make it even worse is also further back than a cow’s is) and often regains its consciousness and is actually conscious while being slaughtered. This is why you can hear the screaming even from far away when horses are being “processed”. .
That for most of us is a enough of reason to be “turned off” by horse meat . My daughter Nicole is a equestrian trainer up and down the Pacific Coast show circuit and knows friends (some vets) who very well know what actually does go on .
Racehorses, riding horses etc. are where many slaughter horses come from in the first place.
Remember horses sure are not organically raised.
Medicines are controlled in only raised for food animals. Cattle blood gets sold to fertilizer companies but horse blood is discarded: fertilizer companies started rejecting it in the mid-eighties because it has too many toxic drugs in it. The drugs in horse blood disabled bacteria in wastewater systems at slaughter plants in IL and TX (closed in 2007).
Everyone has the right to choose what to eat and what not. And sure culture makes a lot of difference.
But when it comes to horse meat and safety, we need to listen to the fertilizer companies they know.
