Horse slaughter is the practice of slaughtering horses to produce meat for consumption.
Human beings have consumed horse meat since the earliest days of human history: the oldest known cave art, the thirty-thousand year-old paintings in the Chauvet Cave of modern France, show horses prominently alongside other wild animals hunted by humans. The later domestication of the horse is widely held to have been initiated for the purposes of raising horses for slaughter for human consumption. However, modern horse slaughter has become highly controversial in many parts of the world, based on a multiplicity of concerns: e.g., whether horses are or can be managed humanely in industrial-scale slaughter; whether horses not purpose-raised for consumption are likely to yield safe meat; whether it is appropriate to consume a creature that has become a companion animal in affluent societies.
Horse meat is a quite dry meat to cook, it is common to add some extra fat from other animals (like bacon) to increase its softness when roasted.
Country | Tons per year |
---|---|
Mexico | 78,000 |
Argentina | 57,000 |
Kazakhstan | 55,000 |
Mongolia | 38,000 |
Kyrgyzstan | 25,000 |
United States | 25,000 |
Australia | 24,000 |
Brazil | 21,000 |
Canada | 18,000 |
Poland | 18,000 |
Italy | 16,000* |
Romania | 14,000 |
Chile | 10,000 |
France | 7,500 |
Uruguay | 8,000 |
Senegal | 9,500 |
Colombia | 6,000 |
Spain | 5,000* |
Read more about Horse Slaughter: Slaughtering, United Kingdom, Rest of European Union, History
Famous quotes containing the words horse and/or slaughter:
“God help the horse, and the driver too!
And the people and beasts who have never a friend!
For the driver easily might have been you,
And the horse be me by a different end!
And nobody knows how their days will cease!
And the poor, when theyre old, have little of peace!”
—James Kenneth Stephens (18821950)
“I who have cursed
The drunken officer of British rule, how choose
Between this Africa and the English tongue I love?
Betray them both, or give back what they give?
How can I face such slaughter and be cool?
How can I turn from Africa and live?”
—Derek Walcott (b. 1930)