Eating horses?

[5Foot5]

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?

Yes but they do that in France and Iceland too...

I'I don't think the horses had much choice in 'making a deal with us' user. If they didn't let us ride on their backs and nobeley carry us around they'd have been whipped until they did or shot.

Sorry Bing but the only reason pigs and cows exist is for food

If it wasn't for human intervention to breed them for food, they wouldn't exist

Anyone who has eaten salami has eaten an equine of some description. I'm a horse owner and horse lover and while I wouldn't go out of my way to eat horse meat, I wouldn't go out of my way not to.

Yes I would and I have ... as has just about anyone who's ordered a 10 euro "steak frites" while in France

It makes especially good mince for spag bog and the like, and I've known places in the south where viande hachee is assumed to mean horse unless beef is actually requested

When in Rome and all that ...

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

Yes, I have petted a cow. My Grandma used to have cows and when I was a child, we'd be around them a lot. Didn't see the bother.

I think whale, shark and dolphin are entirely different and I would never consider eating them.

I imagine the people that told you it was fine to eat minke helen are the same people who tell you there's such a thing as environmentally friendly palm oil.

Holes of course they have a choice. A horse could kill you if he felt like it, with his hooves or teeth, in which case we wouldnt go near them. But he doesnt.

I wouldn't nor would I eat cat or dog or even rabbit. I have owned all of those as pets. Besides which the way in which horses sold for meat are transported makes me sick. They are intelligent, beautiful and capable of great service and loyalty unlike cattle or sheep.

I couldn't eat a (non- endangered obviously) whale. More because I don't think it would taste nice than because of ethics

limited cats were called roof rabbits.
I couldn't eat an animal I couldn't kill so no horse for me, but don't find it appalling that others do eat them.

I'm a vegetarian for ethical reasons so I won't be eating any meat.

And I respect your decision entirely. Obviously if you eschew all meat then you would find the idea of eating horse as distasteful as cow, pig, chicken, rabbit or any other living thing.

My question was really to other meat eaters as to why this one animal might be seen as untouchable. However, it would seem the majority of posters don't necessarily think so. Maybe there is a market for it in the UK!

I think whale, shark and dolphin are entirely different and I would never consider eating them. Why sharks in the same grouping? They are very different...

I wouldn't eat shark again because eating apex predators is not a great idea. Whale and dolphin because of intelligence.

Why is eating apex predators a bad think? I have eaten shark before so just wondered.

I have and I would again. And I love horses btw. Their diets are usually very pure and natural too, so it's a good product.

I agree with ChiefClerkDrumknott about the welfare issue too.

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/news/princess-anne-urges-britons-to-consider-eating-horsemeat-8940667.html

Generally speaking, the more value there is in the meat, the better the welfare.

Well the little fish eat a tiny amount of mercury, stays in their bodies. Then a bigger fish eats lots of little fish, more mercury. Then up and up to the apex predator which eats a million fishes worth of mercury.

Ah I see, hence why you shouldn't eat shark if pregnant.

My ds prefers a horse steak to a beef steak when we're in France , same goes for burgers.

Awesome graphic!

Herbivores are generally tasty. Carnivores not. Omnivores depend. Reptiles are yuck bit some insects delicious. Frogs snd snails depends on the slime issue.

Absolutely right. On this very sound thinking, the second the world goes tits up, the first to be eaten will be the vegans and then the vegetarians by us meat eaters. Top tip 😉

In all seriousness though I think as many have suggested or eluded to, it's about perspectives. All living creatures are potentially food, including humans. Rabbit is absolutely wonderful in a pie. People say that's the sweetest best tasting chicken pie ever. Tell them it's rabbit, and some go ok, hadn't thought about it in past but it tastes good, others are appalled.

Farmers don't name the livestock they going to eat/butcher. So maybe if we name stuff we don't eat it, if it remains nameless, i.e. Not humanised then it's fair game ?

Been a life long horse lover and I would eat horse. As long as it wasn't one I personally knew, but that's not equine specific - I wouldn't want to eat a lamb, pig, cow, chicken etc that I'd built a relationship with. I know it sounds a bit hypocritical.
As long as any animal destined for food is cared for and slaughtered humanely then I don't have a problem with eating it.

My Grandma used to breed chicken, geese, ducks, pigs and rabbits and even had names for some of them. But they were still food so she didn't go to a supermarket to buy a chicken for her soup. We ate rabbits and they are totally delicious. Properly and well fed, yum.
I also love deer meat which many are squeamish about. I blame Disney for bringing the anthropomorphism to the extremes. Cute dancing and singing bunnies, the caring deer Daddy who'd in reality wouldn't give a damn about the poor orphaned thing, the list is endless. And they all live beside each other and don't hurt each other unless they are complete baddies because surely, no loving and caring animal needs to eat to survive unless it's grass, honey or berries.

it has got nothing to do with cuteness factor and anthropomorphism. I would happily eat a rabbit or some venison but draw the line at horse. I am sure I am not alone, or there would be much more of a horse meat industry in these islands.

we used to live in central asia.

Horses are very special animals to the people we lived amongst.
They traditionally were nomads and rode them, breed from them, drank the milk and ate the meat.
Today horse meat is still a staple part of the diet, sold in every butcher.

horse sausage is delicious.

I really have never understood why it is ok to eat cow and sheep but not horse.
I understand why people become vegetarian (was myself for about 10 years) but not why people get upset about eating one type of meat versus another.
Surely the only issue is the welfare of the anmlas? Better to eat free range well reared horse than battery chicken?

On this very sound thinking, the second the world goes tits up, the first to be eaten will be the vegans and then the vegetarians by us meat eaters. Free range vegans are the only ethical choice.