Horse Slaughter?

Question

what are your views

Answer 1

It is barbaric. Japan is the biggest consumer of Horse meat. It is sickening. In fact Japanese slaughtered kentucky Derby winner Ferdinand and at his meat.

Answer 2

The same thing happens to cattle in America & not many people complain about it.  Personally, I think it sucks that people feel the need to eat meat on a mass scale.  If they raised their own, I doubt they'd eat so much of the animals they had to slaughter themselves!

Answer 3

Ya know, I really didn't need to know all that.

Answer 4

To Newmarketsalsa: To me there is a difference between kindly putting a horse down and sending it to the slaughterhouse. When you get old, arthritic and start fretting where do you want to go ? To Dr Kervorkian or Auschweitz?

Answer 5

do you plan on starting a save the horse fund?

Answer 6

Dead horses still run?  This is horse RACING.  Nothing else.  Take your rant elsewhere.

Answer 7

oh my God. i didnt know they do that. everyone who does that can just burn in you know where for all i care

Answer 8

Horse meat tastes nice.

OK so give me thumbs down. I was asked for my view so I gave it.

Answer 9

It is a tough issue. In America we don't eat much horsemeat and horses are considered pets and racing heroes. But we slaughter other livestoclk all the time and no one thinks about it. The other thing to consider is that many horses would have nowhere to go. There simply would not be homes for all the horses no one wants. And then what happens to them? Do they get neglected, beaten, left to die somewhere? Personally, I think it is terrible but you have to ask what will happen to all these unwanted animals before you ban slaughter outright.

Answer 10

I'm sorry, but whilst some of the methods of slaughter are considered to be cruel, they are a darn site more humane than leaving a horse to starve to death in a field, which is what will happen to a lot of horses if horse slaughter is banned.

The fact is that some horses will come to the end of their useful life and surely it is better to dispose of them quickly than to leave them to rot.

Just recently a work colleague of mine had her horse put down.  He had developed severe arthiritis that meant he could not be ridden, and when she had tried to turn him out in a field full-time he just fretted and tried to get out of the field (he was with other horses so loneliness was not an issue).  He was the kind of horse that wanted to be doing something all the time, and as he could not do this, the kindest thing for him was to put him down, rather than let him worry himself to death.

You may not approve of the eating of horse meat (and personally I would never eat it), but don't critisize other people (and countries) for doing it.  It is this kind of attitude that leads to xenaphobia, we should all respect each others traditions and ways of life.

CLARINETKING28 - I totally understand your point, but I am playing devil's advocate - given the choice would you rather die in a short space of time (say 5 minutes) or slowly starve to death over weeks?  A slaughterhouse is the lesser of two evils.

I watched a tv programme over here called The F Word a week or so ago, in it they showed a lamb being slaughtered - it was electrocuted, hung up by it's back legs and had it's throat slit.  It wasn't pleasant, but it was over in minutes and the lamb was not aware of what was going on once it had been stunned.  My personal opinion is that if you eat meat (as I do), you should be able to watch an animal be killed - anyone who eats meat but is critical of the way animals are killed is a hypocrite.

Answer 11

Messed up.

Answer 12

Horse slaughter is needed. Until back yard breeders stop what they do, there will be a surplus of untrained, badly bred horses that nobody will buy.