Is hippophagy always cruel or does it depend on the circumstances in which it is carried out?

H

Horsa

Guest
I used to think that hippophagy was always cruel no matter what but since I had to read about hippophagy as part of the research phase of my research & report-writing task on equine history set by my Manager while I've got to work at home because of this virus I've read a few things which have changed my mind & I now think the answer to the question I've set is "whether hippophagy is cruel or not depends on the circumstances in which it is carried out. The book I read goes into all the gory details which I'll pass on because it made me feel physically sick & upset at times. (I haven't had a chance to cross-reference what I've read yet but I will do when I get round to it before I put my report into chronological order & re-write it.)

1stly, I need to define the word hippophagy because it is not a word we use everyday. Hippophagy is the process by which horses are butchered & eaten.

2ndly, although we think that all horses that are butchered are bred to be eaten this is not always the case. Sometimes horses have full, normal lives & are well treated before they die so when they die their natural deaths they are sold for horsemeat & their hair is used for paintbrushes. All the horse is used in the same way that native Americans used all the buffalo when they died (except the heart which was buried in the belief that more buffalo would come in its place). Some work-horses were treated better because their owners knew that even if their horse got old they would still get something out of it when it ceased to be so they didn't work it to death. However, unfortunately some people do breed horses just to be butchered & treat the horses they have cruelly.

Apparently in America they have standards for the trading of horses to butcher & people have been murdered because of other people's beliefs on this subject as it's a very controversial topic there. I think it is right that it's a controversial topic there because if it's carried out for the wrong reasons it's very cruel.

What do you think?
 
The eating of horse meat is no more cruel than eating beef. You are eating a dead animal.

The breeding of horses just for meat would seem unwarranted.

I understand it is still very popular in France.

Years ago when there were millions of horses around it would have made no sense just to bury the carcasses.
In our town there was a horse meat shop in the market. long since gone. I have eaten it when I was a child.

The raising and killing of animals for meat is a very controversial subject. But we are basically carnivores.

At least, unlike animals in the wild, our food is usually dead before we start eating it.
 
The eating of horse meat is no more cruel than eating beef. You are eating a dead animal.

The breeding of horses just for meat would seem unwarranted.

I understand it is still very popular in France.

Years ago when there were millions of horses around it would have made no sense just to bury the carcasses.
In our town there was a horse meat shop in the market. long since gone. I have eaten it when I was a child.

The raising and killing of animals for meat is a very controversial subject. But we are basically carnivores.

At least, unlike animals in the wild, our food is usually dead before we start eating it.
I disagree, but maybe that's because I'm biased as I think that horses are the most beautiful animals on earth.

I agree. Thinking similarly to the way you did above though. If the breeding of horses just for meat is unwarranted, isn't the breeding of pigs just for meat the same? I mentioned pigs because that's their only purpose.

It is indeed.

I agree that if a horse dies naturally & it doesn't die of anything contagious then eating it is just making the best use of its remains. I accidentally ate it during the horse-meat crisis. I only ever got meat from the butcher's for ages after. I only ever bought burgers from the butcher's since then as I knew that butcher's know where their meat comes from. I always asked if burgers were proper beef when eating out before I'd buy them.

I know. Correction, some of us are herbivores, some of us are omnivores & some of us are carnivores. I'm an omnivore.

I agree. We have a choice though. Animals in the wild only eat what they can hunt or gather depending whether they're carnivorous, omnivorous or herbivorous or they starve.
 
I think it is cruel that we have to sacrifice animals to further our own lives. Maybe in prehistoric times there were plant species that had the taste and nutrients of meat but they went extinct.
 
I think it is a cruel that we have to sacrifice animals to further our own lives. Maybe in prehistoric times there were plant species that had the taste and nutrients of meat but they went extinct.
Me too. If animals died naturally of non-contagious illnesses & we just butchered the carcass that's different. I think mushrooms taste quite meat-like. Vegetables are supposed to be better for us than meat but I only like certain vegetables so if I went vegetarian or vegan I'd be mal-nourished. I need to eat liver as I can't get enough iron from nuts & green leafy vegetables. I ate meat before I realised where it came from so I got so used to it & can't give it up.
 
Me too. If animals died naturally of non-contagious illnesses & we just butchered the carcass that's different. I think mushrooms taste quite meat-like. Vegetables are supposed to be better for us than meat but I only like certain vegetables so if I went vegetarian or vegan I'd be mal-nourished. I need to eat liver as I can't get enough iron from nuts & green leafy vegetables. I ate meat before I realised where it came from so I got so used to it & can't give it up.
I believe in the near future we will grow our meat in labs from tasty fat and muscle cells without having to kill animals.
 
I believe in the near future we will grow our meat in labs from tasty fat and muscle cells without having to kill animals.
That would be a good thing for the animals but would it be perfectly safe or at least as safe as natural meat? Would scientists involved know risks immediately before it was brought out or would that be something they found out later? Would they find risks later & be able to do nothing about it later? I'm saying this because sometimes scientists have said new discoveries were safe & brought something out before & later found out they've been unsafe after damage has been done, for example, Thalidomide or asbestos.