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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Eating horses?

209 replies

5Foot5 · 29/10/2016 21:54

DH and I are watching QI on Dave and there has been a discussion about eating horse meat. We were both a bit surprised that it is still seen as slightly distasteful by many people.

I have knowingly eaten horse twice - once in France at a barbeque and once in a hotel in Iceland where we ate foal for a starter and it was sweet and succulent and lovely.

So AIBU for thinking we are a bit squeamish in this country and there is really nothing wrong with it and for asking would you/ have you?

OP posts:
trixymalixy · 29/10/2016 22:23

YANBU. I would eat horse. Given the recent scandal I probably have without realising!

WappersReturns · 29/10/2016 22:23

I keep horses and would eat horse meat. I also farm sheep and cattle for meat, but have pets that I obviously would never slaughter for food. They are separate in my mind. Same species, different emotional attachment. Contrary to popular belief I do still feel affection for the commercial livestock, I fuss them and talk to them like I would any living creature. I would and do eat animals I have bred, delivered and fed myself. I appreciate every second of their existence and the food/income that they provide for me.
My pet sheep though I adore, they are my family in the same way my dogs and cats are. Doesn't put me off eating lamb though Smile

user1477427207 · 29/10/2016 22:24

DAmn I knew as soon as I typed that about cow showjumping that someone would find that video of that crazy German girl and her cow...:)

miwelaisjacydo · 29/10/2016 22:25

I have as a child when we went to France. I would try it again as I would eat well anythjbg

user1477427207 · 29/10/2016 22:26

no Paperdoll, but the horse is noble and has carried us for centuries. It makes a deal with us - we can sit on its back and it will do waht it can for us, in return we treat it well and don't eat it.

Antifrank · 29/10/2016 22:27

Why is a horse any more noble than a pig or a cow? What a ludicrous statement.

crayfish · 29/10/2016 22:28

I haven't (knowingly) but I would eat horse meat. Why not? I'll happily eat cows and pigs and sheep and goats, so it would be a bit hypocritical to say I wouldn't eat a horse. I actually love pigs, I think they are really smart and interesting but I had a bacon sandwich this morning. As long as an animal is humanely raised and killed then I would give most things a try. I would avoid cats and dogs though because they are carnivores as stated above.

The biscuits are unfair, OP is raising an interesting point.

Fruitellaz · 29/10/2016 22:28

No, but I don't eat any animals. It's weird that people value the lives of some animals more than others.

SpeakNoWords · 29/10/2016 22:29

Noble = pretty?

If cows had been bred for looks over centuries then we'd think them noble too, I suspect.

user1477427207 · 29/10/2016 22:29

no Antifrank it is far from ludicrous. Obviously a horse is more noble than a cow. For a start it permits us to build a relationship with it, in a way that a cow would not be capable of.

Clandestino · 29/10/2016 22:30

We went to a Halloween party today, at a nearby farm. They were showing the birds of prey and how they feed them chicks. One Mum standing with her son beside us almost puked herself when the man tore off the head off the dead chick and fed it to one of the birds (mind you, he had told us it was not for the sensitive people and asked us if we wanted to see the feeding and all agreed). The same Mum and son were later on feasting on burgers like there was no tomorrow.
There's a huge element of hypocrisy in our relationship with food - we want to eat meat but show us cute little calves being killed and we go all "yuck" and "how cruel". Recently I saw a FB post of someone who saw a beautiful hawk catching a pigeon. Some of the reactions were totally ridiculous: "Oh, I hope they took away the poor pigeon from the hawk!" "Oh, how disgusting, did you chase the hawk away?" Sure and they gave him a fiver and pointed her in the direction of the nearest supermarket.

I am by no means condoning killing of endangered species in the name of a dubious tradition as it happens with whales. Or mass theft of dogs and cats and their subsequent gruesome slaughter. That is sadistic theatre, not necessity. But yes, we do eat animals to survive, our bodies are designed to source our nutrition from meat - but the progress of our civilisation caused that many of us no longer see the connection between the living animal and the sausage on our plate.

MistresssIggi · 29/10/2016 22:30

I haven't but then I wouldn't eat cows or pigs either.

Original poster
5Foot5 · 29/10/2016 22:30

But user it's not like we are the only nation who ride horses and have used horses for work and sport. I am sure that the French have a similar working / sporting relationship with them.

OP posts:
MrsMook · 29/10/2016 22:31

I probably ate horse along with goat and camel in Mongolia. Survival culture in the Gobi is to eat the weakest grazing animal available as there's very little scope for anything else. In the tourist gers I stayed in, there was one meal avaliable, and any questioning about it would leave you rather hungry. Our guide waited until the final day to announce what we'd been eating. Our group was much less squeamish than most. (Mongolians tend to be amused by our preference for the lean meat over the fat- for them maximum calorie intake is the priority for surviving a hard winter and poor grazing)

British meat culture is a hierarchy based on how cuddly and emotionally attached we are to the animal. Pets like dogs- definitely not, horses- probably not, game- maybe not, farmed (sheep, pigs, cows)- probably, not mammal (chicken/fish) is getting close to being taken for a vegetarian by some.

BeingATwatItsABingThing · 29/10/2016 22:31

I wouldn't no, I like horses and feel they have another purpose whereas the entire point of cows/pigs etc is food!!

No, the entire point of cows and pigs is not food! They are living things. What is your purpose in life? Angry

I'm a vegetarian for ethical reasons so I won't be eating any meat. However, I know that that is my choice and others disagree. I just wish people would treat animals humanely and give them a life worth living.

user1477427207 · 29/10/2016 22:32

yes you are right 5foot5 but there is more of a special relationship here. I mean , the French eat anything that moves including frogs, snails and deep fried sparrows. ...

Clandestino · 29/10/2016 22:33

For a start it permits us to build a relationship with it, in a way that a cow would not be capable of.

Actually, cows are very sociable and rather intelligent animals capable of friendship and animosity.
Pigs are really intelligent too, for that matter.

limitedperiodonly · 29/10/2016 22:33

I don't think I have. I wouldn't order it, which is irrational, because if I was given it, I'd eat it without a qualm.

I've always eaten rabbit despite keeping rabbits as pets and I wasn't at all bothered by that, though I remember a couple of girls at school were. I think it was motivated by a desire to bully rather than a concern for animal welfare.

My mum, who raised rabbits for meat during the war, put a padlock on my rabbit's hutch when a neighbour said we should slaughter him.

I wouldn't eat dog or cat or any other carnivore because of a vague thought I have that eating carnivores is not a good idea in case of diseases related to CJD. But I have no scientific training to back up the things I've read.

My mum said that during the war you always bought rabbit with the head on to make sure it wasn't a cat. I can see how their stripped bodies would look very similar. Food adulteration was a fear in Britain during the war and must have been more so in other countries then and in other times here and abroad.

I also eat veal and particularly like an Italian thing which is the intestines of a calf slaughtered at under a month and cooked with the mother's milk still inside. It's really nice.

BTW I don't think your topic is goady OP

crayfish · 29/10/2016 22:34

Why is there more of a special relationship here? I'm genuinely asking. I don't know anything about horses really.

user1477427207 · 29/10/2016 22:34

" Actually, cows are very sociable and rather intelligent animals capable of friendship and animosity. "

with each other perhaps - have you ever petted a cow or tried to handle one? NOt worth the bother I can assure you.

FurryLittleTwerp · 29/10/2016 22:35

I'm very unsqueamish about food & would definitely eat it.

I have been to Iceland 3 times & never saw it on the menu - I would have tried it though I ate puffin breast

For a while I bought Tesco's "100% beef" meatballs & made pasta sauce with them. After the Horsemeat Scandal, they were just not the same - much less succulent & juicy - presumably they were now actually 100% beef.

user1477427207 · 29/10/2016 22:35

crayfish because they will carry us and do their best for us if we ask them to.

MrsTerryPratchett · 29/10/2016 22:35

It makes a deal with us It really doesn't. It doesn't have theory of mind so it can't. I wouldn't eat an animal with ToM, so that's dolphins, chimps, orangutans out.

Pigs are as clever as monkeys BTW. I think that makes eating them much worse. Not 'noble' though so dig in...

LlamaDrama · 29/10/2016 22:35

If the horse was raised to become meat I.e in the same way a cow would, I have no problem eating one. I wouldn't pop up to my field and butcher one of my two pet horses though.

I am very much a carnivore!

Helenluvsrob · 29/10/2016 22:36

Yep. Have in France and would gain. Agree it's the raising / slaughtering conditions that matter not the type of animal.

Mind you a I was slightly pilloried at the Age of 11 for declaring rabbit at a French school dinner delicious! (Exchange trip ). Mind you my parents were 20yrs older than those of my peers - so I was aware that when they lived in the countryside mum would count the rabbits the bus hit on the way home and if it got to a certain number dad would get a torch and walk the route for roadkill !

Would you eat non endangered whale ( minke) ? I did in Iceland and it was like the best steak. Couldn't bring myself to try puffin, that's so illogical !

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