November 6, 2013, - 1:58 pm
Animal Rights Anti-Horsemeat Coalition Wins Again: Jihad Against Eating Horse
The jihad against horse meat continues with the same fervor as the Muslim jihad against pigs and Mohammed cartoons. And now it’s clogging our federal courts for no legitimate reason.
I like and have ridden horses. I don’t eat horse meat and never would even if I could because it isn’t kosher and the idea is absolutely disgusting and stomach-turning to me. But there is absolutely no reason whatsoever why Americans should be barred from slaughtering horses for the purpose of consumption, just because the idea of it repels me and others. There are no sacred cows. And there aren’t any sacred horses, either. And, by the way, I’ve owned horsehair boots and belts. And I don’t think twice about it. Animals–all of them–were made to serve man. Anyone who believes otherwise is an animal rights crazy. It’s one thing to torture animals. I’m against that as any decent human is. It’s entirely another to slaughter them for food.
I’ve written about this before. But, now, the fight against horse meat is front and center in federal court in New Mexico. Last week, Federal Judge Christina Armijo threw out a lawsuit filed by the Humane Society to halt inspection of horses for slaughter. The suit was an attempt to block the slaughter of horses for meat and consumption purposes. But, this week, the Humane Society got a Federal Appeals Court to issue a restraining order, preventing plants in Missouri and New Mexico from proceeding with the inspections and slaughter.
In 2006, Congress prevented the slaughter of horses for meat by banning the U.S. Department of Agriculture from inspecting horse slaughter plants. But in 2011, Congress omitted that language from the USDA funding bill, and animal rights activists and horse lovers have been fighting the slaughter of horses for meat ever since, through ridiculous litigation.
Why is a horse any different from a chicken whose wings you eat at a restaurant or that turkey you might be eating on Thanksgiving? Why is it any different from a cow from which that steak you might have eaten emanates? Why is it different from the salmon or tuna you eat? It isn’t. Horses are not special.
Yes, I get that people who ride horses love them like a member of the family. I get that America has a history of humanizing horses, such as “Mr. Ed” and so on. And perhaps it goes back to the American history of Western movies and Western culture in which horses play a big part. But horses aren’t any different from any other animal that humans consume. I wouldn’t eat it, but I believe in your freedom to do so.
And I believe in the freedom of American businessmen to open horse slaughtering plants and creating jobs for Americans (hopefully not illegal aliens, but they’ll likely work at those plants, too). America exports almost 160,000 horses a year to Mexico and other locations for slaughter. Those are American jobs going to Mexican and other foreign slaughterhouses and meat packing joints. It is intellectually dishonest to say, “No, we won’t allow the slaughter of horses here because we find it despicable,” but then ship those horses elsewhere where they will be slaughtered. America has an excess of wild horses roaming around without enough food. It is only logical to slaughter some of them for meat purposes, rather than allow them to starve to death (which is far less humane).
I’m not a veterinarian, but I highly doubt that horses get diseases or present health risks that aren’t present in any other kind of animal meat that we do allow to be slaughtered and processed here. The lawsuit by the Humane Society pretends otherwise–that horses are a higher life form or different life form from all other animals. They aren’t.
Unfortunately, horse lovers and animal rights activists are so rabidly against the idea of slaughtering horses, that there is no reasoning with them.
Their opposition to the slaughter of horses for meat is irrational. It’s ridiculous. And it’s time we allowed the slaughter of horses in America for food.
Anything less is a victory for the animal rights nuts.
The opposition to horse slaughter isn’t a sign of civilization. It’s a sign of idiots and their hysterics running the show.
Tags: Animal Rights, eating horse meat, horse meat, horse meat jihad, horsemeat, horsemeat jihad, horses
They’ve temporarily blocked the humane slaughter of these horses but only temporarily. In the mean time these horses will suffer because they will not be cared for and may not be well fed. This causes the horses to suffer and the slaughter house to lose money and possibly jobs. The article ridiculously states that cows stand still to be slaughtered and horses do not. Thus it is okay to slaughter cows. Cows do not stand still, no animal stands still for this! The humane society should be honest in their statements.
Karen on November 6, 2013 at 3:03 pm