JUst got back from a wonderful holiday in Malta.

Went to a little restaurant and had a wonderful Horsemeat stew. I'd not eaten horse before even though I have lived in Italy and France but was keen to try it and would definitely have it again.

Has anyone else here ever eaten Horse and what did you think? Also, do any meat eaters on here have any moral objections to eating horse (veggies, I know you will have but I am interested to see whether other meat eaters think eating horse is different to eating beef).

Was it similar to beef , was it tough i would try it like you say its just another animal isn't it.

I eat venison so no I'd have no problem with horse

It was very rich, a bit more like venison than beef I suppose. Not tough at all, it had obviously been cooked slowly for hours, melted in the mouth when you ate it. It does have a sweeter taste than beef.

Only problem with it was Malta was so hot and we had had a big bowl of rabbit pasta before hand that we were all stuffed so couldn't finish the plate.

Interesting point as really if you eat meat that is really no difference from a moral point of eating horse, cow, chicken, dog, cat, except by someone who is very deeply confused about fundamental issues of morality.

Regardless of species all these animals go to slaughterhouse which are places of hell and unspeakable violence against the vulnerable.

That's exactly what I am getting at. I eat meat and enjoy it (and yes I do know what slaughter houses are like but don't want to get into that on this thread). I can not understand people that do eat meat suddenly becoming squeamish of eating something like a horse just because of images of Black Beauty etc. People that do this are hypocritical to the extreme. Just like so called vegetarians that say they only eat fish or chicken. You are either a veggie or you are not and someone that eats fish or poultry is not.

I agree and I think part of the reason is like you say people have more emotional associations with horses than say with cows and its harder for people to disassociate the flesh on their plate with the animal. Really meat eaters should eat their pets when they have died as it would be wasteful to not do so if you think about it.

I'd have no problems at all, and would love to try meat. I've heard its richer more like venison before aswell.

Would you try dog or cat?

Do you ever wonder why animals are bred for food and that they have slaughter houses, vets, standards etc.
It's so that you get animals that have been bred well, treated well, in good health, free from disease, slaughtered well etc.

Would you eat a cow that had lived it's life and dies from natural causes without getting a vet to check it out?

So are you going to take your cat/dog to the vet after it's died to have a postmortem to checkout if you can eat it or not?


I'm sure some people would. There are people who are happy and confident to eat road kill.

Many people eat wild food or game as it is referred to. Many farmers may have pet chickens, pigs, goats that they will rear untill they are ready to eat. You find this more in less westernised cultures/towns (a community that has a pig for end of harvest or a family that has a goat for a religious festival etc.) but there's no reason why it still can't happen here.


I'm guessing that many though would rather make sure that a farm/slaughterhouse/butcher had done taken all the guess work out of it though.



Now, in some parts of Korea they do breed dogs for food but they are not treated well at all.
Cooking In The Dager Zone had a good program on it.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programme...ne/6551385.stm

In the end the public here will eat meat bred for food but in the whole they want it treated well.

I haven't eaten horse meat and have no desire to do so. However, I don't see anything wrong with it provided the horse lived a natural as life as possible - it seems rather unlikely to me that a horse would be "factory farmed", so if you want to eat horse, then do.

I love horse. Horse steak is delicious, and there is a horse and garlic sausage OH insists on having whenever we are in Germany.

Yes......

I wonder if different breeds of dog and cat have different flavours ?

I want to try horse, in fact I'd not rule out eating any meat

Difference between horses and dogs and cat is that one is a herbivore the others are carnivores. I am not sure I could eat a carnivore, it would feel dirty somehow.

I love horses and have owned them for many years but I dont have any issue with eating horse meat. I'm not sure that I would want to eat it myself but not for the obvious reasons.....horses are prone to injury and some can be a bit gruesome so I have seen the inside of a living horse too often to maintain an appetite if it arrived on my plate.

The horsemeat industry it the main by product of the racing industry....there are too many failed race horses to rehome, re-training and ownership is only suitable with very experienced horse riders/owners.

They will have been well looked after and also young...most are declared failed at quite a young age. Many have injuries from being raced when their bones and structures have not matured, forthcoming owners for damaged horses are rare and sancturies overstretched and the 'life left' too long because they are young.

So....we might as well eat them.

I went to Malta at about the same time last year. It's a lovely place but I wouldn't go again in mid-June as it's much too hot. April would be better I think. Even the locals complain about the extreme heat.

I think this is a good point. I saw an interesting video from the Onion News Network. It involves a “news” story about a young gymnast who is “euthanized” by her parents after she suffers a minor, but career-affecting, injury. By the same rational it would make sense that her body is used perhaps as a high protein animal feed for example race horses.

As Taglet said about race horses the gymnast would only be a burden on her family. So her body might as well be put to some use.

Do you work for PETA or something, doughnut8?

You have the "FOOD CHAIN" the wrong way round there. There is a reason it is in the way it is

No as I have said before I don't agree with PETA's views. I am not an animal welfarist but an abolitionist.

So by food chain I presume you mean the ability to exploit the vulnerable and that humans are not moral beings.

Well I reject that base position otherwise many disgusting things could be rationalised by that reasoning. We are either moral beings or we are not.

If a pig is eating a human it's probably because a ganster has fed his enemies to it.

Generally if an animal is eating a human it's because the human has come to a sticky end.


Humans are top of the food chain. We breed and herd animals for consumption. These days in many countries (especially in the UK) we have very good welfare laws to make sure the animals are bred, raised, slaughtered and butchered to a high standard.

I think you should take comfort in that fact as it could be a lot worse.


I think you should also be quite happy that people gernerally tolerate your views as you would be laughed off in many other regions of the world.

Thanks for the humour!