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talljasperman's avatar

The government of Canada is voting (right now) for horse to be an acceptable food source. What do you think about eating horse meat?

Asked by talljasperman (21916points) May 14th, 2014

How would you vote? Have you ever eaten horse or dressed one for a butchers shop? What does horse taste like? Edit the bill was defeated.

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35 Answers

Dutchess_III's avatar

Hmmmm. Any dissent would be purely emotional. We tend to identify with horses more than cows. I mean, how many cows have won the Triple Crown? How many cows have even been given a name? How many cows have been the star of a Hollywood movie? Ever seen a cow dance on his hind legs, or jump through burning hoops at a circus?

josie's avatar

Is it really any different than pig meat.
Or cow meat for that matter.
And my girl friend was born in the Middle East. They eat goat meat! At that point, I think horse might be a step up.

Dan_Lyons's avatar

@josie Actually goat meat is extraordinary! It is a staple in Jamaica where I ate my first curry goat back in ‘88. It tasted like bacon with knuckles.

I think horse steaks will be delicious and may force the price of beef to go down.

longgone's avatar

I don’t see any difference to eating other animals. I would hope these horses might even be living fairly well, because the meat industry fears all the horse-loving little girls… ~

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dappled_leaves's avatar

Here’s a bit of context on this story. People in the US and Canada have been trying to stop the slaughter of American horses in Canada, and a recent bill was introduced in Canadian Parliament to halt it. The bill apparently has popular support, but it sounds like it’s not going to pass.

I’m not against eating horses in principle. I eat meat, and don’t apologize for that.

@josie You’ve never had goat meat?? I guess you don’t eat Greek often. ;)

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ucme's avatar

Sounds tasty, so long as I don’t get a dose of the trots

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syz's avatar

Lot’s of cultures eat horse meat. And dog meat. And cat.

MarvinPowell's avatar

Honestly, as long as it was good, I wouldn’t care. Who knows what actual meat they use in McDonalds! I’m sure horse is no worse. No human, though. Human meat is stringy and sinewy. Hard to digest. Its like veal or goat. Yes, horse meat is fine by me.
.

“Mommy, Seabiscuit tastes delicious!”

johnpowell's avatar

We don’t have a IKEA here so I have never had horse meat. But I wouldn’t object to eating it. I grew up on a farm and had a pet cow.

I have also been kicked by a horse. Fuck those long faced bastards.

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Dan_Lyons's avatar

@MarvinPowell How do you know what human meat tastes like? Just curious.

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ARE_you_kidding_me's avatar

I’ll eat it. I wonder if it will be a “red” meat or more like chicken or pork.

AshLeigh's avatar

The only reason we don’t eat certain animals now, is because we found better uses for them. I believe the first animal we put to work was the goat? They were used for farming and stuff.
Horses are no longer our main means of transportation, but we’ve put more value on them because of it. Similar to dogs, which were used for hunting.

Darth_Algar's avatar

@MarvinPowell “Who knows what actual meat they use in McDonalds!”

Beef. Maybe not the highest quality beef, but beef nonetheless. I know there’s the common perception of fast food “mystery meat”, but honestly the beef industry in the US is so heavily subsidized that makes beef relatively dirt cheap.

Haleth's avatar

If wishes were horses, we’d all be eatin’ steaks right now.

Dutchess_III's avatar

Yes, they use beef. They import grass-fed beef too because ”... it cannot satisfy its need for lean beef by buying solely from American sources and has to turn to beef exporters outside the USA to make up the shortfall. It’s not a question of there not being enough beef in the USA; it’s a matter of the beef available for sale not meeting McDonald’s standards for leanness.

Dutchess_III's avatar

@Darth_Algar Hamburger, by its very nature, is not made from the highest quality of cut.

LuckyGuy's avatar

At many of the Sushi shops in Japan they serve Umasashi or Basashi (Raw horse meat sashimi). If I recall it was always served on a Tuesday. I don’t know why.
There was nothing really special about it.

josie's avatar

@Dan_Lyons @dappled_leaves
Oh, I have had plenty of goat meat. It’s not that it is awful. But it is just bad enough that I do not see the big deal about horse meat.

kritiper's avatar

I’ve eaten horse. It might taste better and not be so tough if it was raised to be eaten. Otherwise it’s just like beef. It’s meat.
Too bad we can’t buy beef like it used to be when my grandfather was a child. He once told me “All you’ve ever eaten is that stuff they sell in stores. It has no flavor since all the cattle growers care about is making the sale so they feed the cows growth hormones and stuff to make them grow fast and fat but flavorless. You have no idea how good it can taste!”
We raise three pigs when I was a kid. At no other time in my life have I had pork that was that good!
The explorers of the wild, untamed West had only to carry bullets and salt to have a great meal out in the wilderness.
Some Englishman once noted that (paraphrasing) there was no meal better than wine and flesh.

Strauss's avatar

A horse is a horse, of course, of course…
The main course!

Dan_Lyons's avatar

Never never ever eat a talking horse!

Wilburrrrrrr

downtide's avatar

It doesn’t surprise me that Canada is interested in this, as France is already a big consumer of horse meat. And as was revealed a year or two, horse meat has been secretly substituting for beef in the British food chain for a long time. I bet that’s been going on since world war 2.

Would I eat it? Sure. I’ve probably unknowingly eaten it already.

dappled_leaves's avatar

@downtide This isn’t really about Canadians eating horse meat. It’s about Canadians slaughtering American horses for the European horse meat market. Horse meat is not really a thing in Canada. There is a small market for it in Quebec, because of the French connection, but even there, it is not common by any means.

Darth_Algar's avatar

@dappled_leaves

Is there something about those American horses that makes it worth noting that there American?

ragingloli's avatar

@Darth_Algar
they have ‘freedums’

dappled_leaves's avatar

@Darth_Algar Don’t ask me, I’m not the person reporting the story. Possibly it’s the only reason Americans would report on it. Possibly also it would be less interesting if it weren’t about international trade. Did you read the Guardian story I posted?

Darth_Algar's avatar

@dappled_leaves

I had not. Just now saw it. So, it seems, the crux of the issue here, according to that article, is some sort of horse classism.

goffandy's avatar

I would prefer it over soylent green so yes I would eat it.

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