Wilbur? Come quick. They're going to eat me, Wilbur!
Apparently, there’s been an epidemic of horse-stealing in southern Florida, but the criminals don’t want to ride them.
South Florida is seeing a jump in the horse meat market as restaurants quietly serve up the illicit fare, butchers provide it to trustworthy customers and police officers find slaughtered horse carcasses on roadsides.
At least 17 butchered horse carcasses have been found in Miami-Dade County this year, the highest annual number ever recorded in the county and the year is not over, said Detective Edna Hernandez.
Worried horse owners are organizing watches to patrol their stables, police said.
“It was much more of a hidden thing before,” said Richard “Kudo” Couto of the South Florida Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. “People are getting more brazen now. They’re doing the carving right on the sides of streets.”
Now, our Florida readers shouldn’t be concerned that their local restaurants might try to slip them some horse meat instead of the beef they ordered.
The meat sells for $10-$20 a pound depending on the cut. It can be as high as $40 a pound when supply is short.
Horse meat is legal in Florida, and I’ve heard that many unwanted horses are abandoned in the swamps there. Why don’t these people get together?
Is it wrong that the idea of eating horse meat doesn’t bother me? Sure, I like horses. But cows are sweethearts, too. Lambs are adorable. I draw the line at cats, dogs, primates, dolphins and whales. Everything else? Fair game.
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I grew up in South Florida and I never once even saw a horse down there. You have a better chance of running into a snapping turtle and a two-headed water moccasin on the same day
That must be why horsemeat is so expensive. $40 a pound?!
True, but they are practically giving away the snapping turtle meat
The South Florida town Wellington is basically a horse lover’s community. Not so much farmers but horse owners, race horse trainers, etc. Monkee’s Davy Jones lives a little above there and raises race horses.
Why is a horse better than a dog?
French eat horse too I believe. Alpo dog food used to have horse meat chunks.
Horse eating is in fact an indication of sophistication. Just like not showering, dumping your trash in the closest gutter, and treating pedophiles like national treasures.
Was it Lums, or was it Lubys that got busted for selling people horse meat in the 70s? I guess in the early 70s, there was a recession, times were hard, profits were down, and so they started using horse meat here and there. Eventually someone busted ‘em on it, and while they corrected their anti-equine (Or possibly pro-equine) ways, the chain never really recovered from the scandal and finally died in the 80s or 90s.
That said, I’m gonna’ say I don’t really believe this story because it implies (A) there’s enough horses around for people to think they could live on ‘em, and (B) that there’s enough people around who could catch, kill, gut, and clean a horse. Florida appears to me to be one great big suburb. Sure, Beavis and Butthead might think, “Hey, let’s eat a horse!” but there’s a lot of effort that goes in to that, and why bother when you can get pre-prepared horsemeat from any reputible animal supply store? (It’s commonly fed to dogs and large carnivores)
During the time of conversion in Europe, one of the things that new Christians had to give up was the eating of horsemeat, which had a religious significance in the old heathen religion. I wonder if our rejection of it goes all the way back to that conflict. Why the French re-adopted it, I have no idea. Maybe it has something to do with the French Revolution.
That’s very interesting, Lars. It’s funny how a sense of what’s good and bad to eat seems so innate, but is actually cultural (and largely illogical).
I suppose it would be a very lean meat probably not much different than buffalo or deer but again horse’s are one of those animals that are so domesticated that eating them seems barbaric.
USing the French as any sort of guage for anything is questionable. Eating horses is wrong. People who have never really worked with the animals don’t realize just how intelligent and amazing they are. MY brother calls his daughters horses Tall Dogs. Thats what they are. There is nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse, so said Ronaldus Magnus. They have been part of the human race millenia. I refused to eat at more than one restaurant that served horse in Germany. Its insulting. We don’t need to eat them. And the way horses are treated is disgraceful. I hope they catch these assholes and jail em for years. There is a law now that does not allow American horses being used to sell to Eurotrash for their consumption. It was voted on I think back in 2002.
Stephanie, I understand what you’re saying completely, but I think talking about how intelligent horses are is a case of finding a reason to explain your instinct. Pigs are probably smarter than horses. Cows are gentle and affectionate. My family owned chickens for years, and they’re actually kind of charming. But I’ll eat all of those animals.
I appreciate your point, Mike, but I never found chickens charming. Hostile and dumb birds, and when one of their buddies gets injured, they peck him to death.
Roosters are hostile. As a five year old, my job every evening was to let the chickens out to graze on the grass. That bastard chicken was more than half my height. Imagine being threatened by an animal that came up to your sternum, was armed with claws and beak, and wanted your blood. I’d run as fast as I could away from the chicken coop every night.
It was only a couple of years ago that I was told that all my older brothers and sisters would gather around the windows when I went up to the chicken coop. They’d lock the door to the house and watch and laugh as I fleed in terror from Rusty the rooster.
Horrible behavior from siblings, you say? I agree. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any younger siblings to take it out on.
All that said, one of my favorite memories from childhood is bringing feed or water up the steep hill to the chicken coop in the middle of winter. Bitter cold outside, inside it was all comfortably warm. The smell of chicken shit mixed with sawdust is something I miss. The low calls of the sleepy hens as I’d pluck the eggs from underneath them, the way they’d rub their heads against my hand as I’d feed them, there’s nothing I’d trade those memories for.
I think most of the reason I’m so fond of pigeons is because of those chickens. There’s something very endearing about an animal that has abosuletly no defense. All either chickens (females) or pigeons can do is peck at you with their blunt bills.
I named all the chickens. I ate some of them, too. (My mom didn’t tell me at the time, because I would have freaked out. But now I know I did, and I have no problem with loving animals and eating them, too.
As long as they’re not abused in the process, I’m fine with it.
Cows are stupid. Worked with them to. Chickens are dirty. Most Horses I’ve worked with are not stupid. You need to spend a month working with them to get it. Of course you don’t understand where I am coming from. Been riding horses since I was 6. Been bitten, kicked, thrown, stomped on and charged. I have known horses that were dumber than bags of hammers and ones who would make Rin Tin Tin look like an idiot. They can be stubborn, willfull, and they get scared easily. Its because they are naturally prey animals and this natural fear is something that has to be worked with. However they aren’t stupid.
Stephanie, thanks for not unloading on me. I know you’re quite capable of that. Let me say that I don’t think I’d ever eat horse. I have no curiousity about what it tastes like, unlike geese (I really want to eat a goose>. I know that for anyone who grew up with a horse, eating horsemeat would be unthinkable.
That’s kind of my point. I think eating a dog is unthinkable, but genuinely good people in southeast asia don’t think twice about it. I just think that’s interersting.
One more thing, Stephanie.
I think that you are soft-hearted enough that if you worked with cows (I’m only familiar with milk cows, not beef cattle) for a month or two, you’d feel differently about eating beef.
They really are very sweet animals. Go up to a fence that surrounds a cow pasture, and just stand there for a while. All the cows, with their big beautiful eyes, will wander over to you. They just want to be with you. I’m all for being as kind as possible to cows as we kill them. I’m never going to give up eating them, though.
Here’s a list of things you shouldn’t eat because they’re smart: People. [here the list ends]. Pigs are smarter than horses, dogs are plenty smart, but as the Chinese proverb goes, “Give a dog a pleasing name, and then eat him.” Conversely, Clams and Oysters have no brain whatsoever, so we should eat them constantly, I guess.
It’s unseemly, of course, but it’s just a social taboo. As to whether or not the french eat horses – I’d never heard that they did – I would imagine it probably has to do more with the abject poverty that France existed in for much of it’s history, more than anything else. Hell, two world wars fought largely on your own soil will go a long way towards making people a LOT less squeamish about eating pets.
Hmm pigs are smarter than horses? Hmmmmm because they can be taught to do things like dogs? How come I don’t buy it. I sense a lot of you actually have never worked with horses. Let me say this: I basically “owned” a horse that would come to his name like a dog, stand without being tied, could count his age, etc. etc. Pigs don’t seem very smart as some people think they are. They live in their own poo quite happily. Dogs and horses won’t do that unless they can’t help it. Pigs are gross creatures, worthy of eating thats about it.
I happily live in my own squalor, Stephanie. It’s not because I’m stupid, just ’cause I’m a bachelor.
Is horse Kosher? I’m thinking no, but can’t remember off the top of my head. I know dogs aren’t. Weird thing for me to know. I don’t keep Kosher, but I figure God had reason for those rules, so I try to keep the non-Kosher to a minimum. I love me some bacon though.
R3, your first sentence made me laugh.
Horses are not kosher, because they chew the cud but do not split the hoof.
Republibot,
Are we considering dolphins and monkeys fair game? If so I know what I’m having for dinner!
Animal were not originally meant to be a food source, but were given over by God to be eaten by men after the Flood (Genesis, in chapter 8 or chapter 6; I’m too lazy to find it right now…). We do exist in a relationship of tension with animals, as were created to have companionship with them, but due to living in a broken world, have to dine on them as well.
Here’s my rule of thumb: If I have, of my own volition, taken an animal into my care, they are my charge. Turning them into a meal is a violation of the bond I have with them. However, where there are overriding moral imperatives, such as the survival of my family, to turn Fido into dinner is morally permissible, but I will look for other means before that.
But lots of farmers have many animals under their care and do eat them. We named my uncle’s calves, rabbits, and pigs, but when the time came, they were called dinner. It didn’t seem that weird to eat Pocket the rabbit to us. We did have a different relationship with the eatables than the pets, but we still named everyone and everyone got fed and cared for as needed. It just seemed like everyone “knew” you ate Porky, Pocket, and Mooky but you didn’t eat Dash and Dorcas (the dog and horse). I still wonder if it doesn’t have a little to do with Jewish dietary law, even though as Christians, we are not restricted by it. I’m thinking more along the lines of dietary stuff getting passed down and watered down until we don’t really know why we do or don’t eat it, it just is. Or even something along the lines of how our bodies are made to work better along the lines of the dietary laws, as chicken, beef,fish, rice and vegetables make up a lot of the most common foods people eat.
I guess it doesn’t really matter. I ain’t gonna eat my horse OR my dog.
We did have a different relationship with the eatables than the pets…
And that’s the distinction.
…but we still named everyone and everyone got fed and cared for as needed.
Of course. You did that because you still felt the need to treat them with a modicum of dignity and because they wouldn’t really be good eating if you didn’t feed them. In any case, they’re livestock, not pets. You’re not going to eat your horse or dog because they’re your pets and in our culture, they’re typically kept as things other than livestock, which means that by social norms, they’re “pet” animals. So, one might argue that the moral norm has been translated into a social norm. Of course, the fact that dogs and horses are not eaten might very well have to do with Jewish dietary laws.
@ Tracy: Thank you!
@ Veruckt: Well, they’re endangered and unseemly, and it seems icky to me, but if you can find some farm-raised dolphin, I say go for it.
Christianity has no particular dietary laws, excepting avoiding blood and roadkill, which weren’t on my menu anyway, so I don’t get all wonky about what I can and can’t eat. I don’t have rules about it, aside from that I don’t really like corn. If you’re the kind of person who gets all wigged out by eating Bambi, I say just do what the indians did: say a little prayer on behalf of the animal before you eat it.
How come hunters have a better grasp of this issue than other people?
Hunters and farmers. Some of the best nature lovers I’ve know have been those who understand the right relationship between man and animal. Real hunters kill only what they or someone else can eat or in defense. They are not heartless, they do it quick, and they usually have great respect for the prey.
Of course there are the “get drunk and kill something/anything” types, but they usually end up in an accident (usually preceded by the words, “hey yall, watch this”)
Having raised chickens, I am especially mindful of waste when I eat a chicken. I save everything, make chicken stock, do everything but eat the tendons. (I even eat the ribs.) I just feel that if an animal gave it’s life for me, I’m obligated to make the most of it.
I do the same with other animals, but price has an influence on me there, too. Chickens are pure gratefulness.
@ Stephanie: What Tracy said.
I called a buddy of mine in S. Florida who says this story is crap. He’s not heard a peep about this, and he points out that there aren’t that many horses in the state, and most of them are in pretty secured areas – stables, barns, etc – which would be difficult to steal.
OTOH, he points out that there are cattle *everywhere* in the state, most of them not really supervised, just left to graze for days on end, and checked on once a week or so. It would be much easier to steal and kill a cow, and you’d get a lot more meat out of it.