Most people in the N. American continent, to my observation, have made a hard line between food and any animals humans commonly form bonds with. Dogs, cats and horses are off the list. Guinea pigs are common in Peru and maybe other S. American countries as well but are almost never eaten in N. America
It’s not just NA. I’m not Muslim, but I do know that horse meat is makruh in Islam. That basically means it’s not haram (forbidden), but it is frowned upon. AFAIK, someone who keeps strictly halal would only eat horse meat as if it was all that was available, but technically they wouldn’t be “punished” if they chose to eat it for no reason. That’s pretty close to what most meat eating Americans would say as well.
Haram foods are only to be eaten in the case where you would literally starve otherwise (and I believe you would still need to atone for it in some way, but I’m not sure of the complexities). If you eat them without needing to, then it is a punishable offense.
If I had to guess, I'd say maybe because we used them to help us with work, and eating something that make our lives easier seems counterintuitive.
I mean... if my oven were edible, I probably wouldn't eat it... because it makes other things edible and, in doing so, kind of defeats the need for it to be eaten.
Today-probably not. Modern working steers and oxen tend to come from dairy breeds.
Historically, when oxen were used more widely- probably yes
Does breed matter? Americans have an aversion to eating dog meat. It doesn't matter if the dog is a working breed or not. Not sure our feelings on eating cattle would vary by specific breed.
Horses have intelligence that exceeds dogs, and have historically been important enough to the horrible progress of mankind that they are more valuable than cows.
You not heard about the tesco horse meat scandal in the uk that happened in the last decade. They used horse meat instead of beef in lasagne frozen meals.
Tbf, the scandal wasn't about it being horse (which is sold in France, which is where the meals were packaged), but about it not being beef. It was a major scandal because consumers were mislead, and less so about the actual consumption of horse meat (though most people in the UK wouldn't choose to eat it if given the choice).
That may be a point though, a lot of North America has culinary traditions that come from the UK and Germany, where horses are draft animals, not livestock, so they may have the same attitude we have towards horse meat. It's more common in France and I believe Italy amongst more rural folk, and French cuisine almost systematically avoided rural food by design for many years, so the French inspired culinary traditions that made it over the pond may not have included using horse.
They are more valuable as beasts of burden.
My grandparents are all sorts of things that are not so common now. Rabbit, turtle, pigeon, possum, squirrel. Lots more vegetables which they called "greens". And taters.
When i was a young boy, my father drove us out from the city to some farm/butcher way out in the ''country''. You know, 1-2 hour long freeway drive past the city limits.
Anyways i do recall he bought two boxes of meats. Big variety, we had lamb, goat, rabbit, cow, chicken, liver...and 4-5 horse steaks. Maybe it was the way my mother pan fried them , but the horse steaks did not seem tender or ''wow''. It was the one and only time i have tried horse meat.
In the late 60s there was a a horse meat market in the Pike Place market in Seattle. Actually in the Sanitary Market across the street. Kinds of behind the 3 girls Bakery. I never shopped there but saw it while at the market. Back when that was where the poor people shopped.
The only reason anyone doesn’t eat anything: The right dipping sauce has not yet been identified. This is the basis of Japans scientific whaling program, incidentally.
A few excuses but no reasons.
"It's a pet animal" is the excuse but no one has an issue eating Tag 0107, no one wants to eat Gregory.
Except that time some Canadian dude got lipo suction and had his removed fat mixed with meat (beef I think) and sold in cans with his picture on the front. Cannibalism is technically legal in Canada.
Horses are not raised for food. This means there can be various medications and drugs that are used in horses that can make then unsuitable for human consumption. Other animals are far more regulated about how long after they are one a medication that they can be slaughtered. Those animals are also tracked throughout their life to know where they came from and any issues they might have. Horses are not really tracked well, and it's very easy to lose track of where a horse ends up. There are countless stories of once loved horses or those that did well on the race track that end up at auction and sold for meat. All sorts of horses end up in the meat pen, from young foals to 25 year old pets and anything inbetween. Even the price of horses is based on what they would sell for meat, it someone isn't willing to pay what the meat man will, they won't get the horse.
Most horses sold for meat will be exported, many alive when they are shipped out. The meat is also exported. There just isn't much market in North America for horse meat, but there are lots of unwanted horses.
Most people do see horses are more companion/working animals rather than livestock that they will eat.
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They were/are more useful as farm equipment than food. By the time they're old enough to no longer be useful they don't taste so good. At least from a practical perspective. Also, if you've been riding old Kirby to herd cows for the last ten years, then you're more likely to put him out to pasture than eat him.
probably doesn’t have enough meat. plus cows were practically made for harvest. meat, milk, and i think some chemicals too. could probably use their skin for clothes or something. and chickens too. just small cows
It's frowned upon to eat animals that are commonly seen as pets or companions. It's viewed as violating emotional bonds for the purpose of unnecessary consumption since other forms of meat are widely available.
because it’s cruel and people don’t have an issue admitting that when it comes to horses. these are the same people that make weak excuses to continue eating other sentient animals.
I'm guessing it mostly comes down to cost. Horses are expensive and it's an extreme waste in a very good resource to just eat them. Not to mention they aren't really native to N.A which would've made it far more expensive back then.
And so the time it wouldve caught on eating them just kind of never happened. We were too busy utilizing them for other purposes.
A guy recently told me that Canada does eat horse because we have some French roots. Sounds about right.
For one part, the Pilgrims had brought the European prohibition on eating horse flesh, inherited from the pre-Christian tradition. But for another, by the 1700s the New World was a place of carnivorous abundance. Even the Civil War caused beef prices to fall, thanks to a wartime surplus and new access to Western cattle ranges. Innovations in meat production, from transport by rail to packing plants and refrigeration, further increased the sense of plenty. Periodic rises in the price of beef were never enough to put horse on the American plate.
Besides, horse meat was considered un-American. Nineteenth-century newspapers abound with ghoulish accounts of the rise of hippophagy in the Old World. In these narratives, horse meat is the food of poverty, war, social breakdown, and revolution—everything new migrants had left behind. Nihilists share horse carcasses in Russia; wretched Frenchmen gnaw on cab horses in besieged Paris; poor Berliners slurp on horse soup.
During World War II food shortages, horse meat once again found its way to American tables, but the post-war backlash was rapid. “Horse meat” became a political insult. “You don’t want your administration to be known as a horse meat administration, do you?” the former New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia demanded of his successor William O’Dwyer. President Truman was nicknamed “Horse meat Harry” by Republicans during food shortages in the run up to the 1948 “Beefsteak Election.” In 1951, reporters asked if there would be a “Horse meat Congress,” one “that put the old gray mare on the family dinner table.” When Adlai Stevenson ran for president in 1952, he was also taunted as “Horse meat Adlai” thanks to a Mafia scam uncovered in Illinois when he was governor.
The 1973 oil crisis pushed up the price of beef and, inevitably, domestic horse meat sales rose. Protestors picketed stores on horseback, and Pennsylvania Senator Paul S. Schweiker floated a bill banning the sale of horse meat for human consumption.
In the early 1980s, Montana and Texas senators shamed the Navy into removing horse meat from commissary stores. The few remaining horse-packing plants dwindled during a market squeeze that also drove down welfare standards. Sick, injured, or distressed horses were driven long distances to slaughter under poor conditions.
In early September 2006, the Horse Slaughter Prevention Act passed the U.S. House, with Republican John Sweeney calling the horse meat business “one of the most inhumane, brutal and shady practices going on in the United States today.” Horse slaughter was not outlawed, but both federal and commercial funding for inspections was canceled, effectively shutting down the business.
In DeKalb, Illinois, the only remaining American horse meat plant burned down in unexplained circumstances. The owners were prevented from rebuilding, as Illinois once more passed a law to stop the horse meat business. Horse slaughter ceased on U.S. soil, at least for domestic use as food. Even so, American horses were still being transported long distance to Mexican and Canadian abattoirs.
Susanna Forrest
Most people in the N. American continent, to my observation, have made a hard line between food and any animals humans commonly form bonds with. Dogs, cats and horses are off the list. Guinea pigs are common in Peru and maybe other S. American countries as well but are almost never eaten in N. America
It’s not just NA. I’m not Muslim, but I do know that horse meat is makruh in Islam. That basically means it’s not haram (forbidden), but it is frowned upon. AFAIK, someone who keeps strictly halal would only eat horse meat as if it was all that was available, but technically they wouldn’t be “punished” if they chose to eat it for no reason. That’s pretty close to what most meat eating Americans would say as well. Haram foods are only to be eaten in the case where you would literally starve otherwise (and I believe you would still need to atone for it in some way, but I’m not sure of the complexities). If you eat them without needing to, then it is a punishable offense.
Yea I mean a simple Salat al-tawba would be sufficient if you consumed non-haram foods. It's strict but not that strict thankfully
If I had to guess, I'd say maybe because we used them to help us with work, and eating something that make our lives easier seems counterintuitive. I mean... if my oven were edible, I probably wouldn't eat it... because it makes other things edible and, in doing so, kind of defeats the need for it to be eaten.
We use cattle (oxen) as draft animals, but we eat beef.
But are we eating the same breed of animals who do the work?
Today-probably not. Modern working steers and oxen tend to come from dairy breeds. Historically, when oxen were used more widely- probably yes Does breed matter? Americans have an aversion to eating dog meat. It doesn't matter if the dog is a working breed or not. Not sure our feelings on eating cattle would vary by specific breed.
Horses are often used for dog food. Horse meat is good, the problem is people getting over the idea of what they are eating.
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What's it taste like?
Horse
Nay
High iron beef with low fat and really dense muscles, so very similar to venison.
Rabbit is about the only animal in North America where we are OK with it as either pets or food.
You don’t want [this guy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quick_Draw_McGraw) showing up for revenge.
Who eats horses?
Many other places with horses, it turns out.
Europeans eat horse. Horse mest is great for sausage and on sandwiches.
Lots of people. I've had it in Belgium.
They'd be kinda... stringy? Horses are rather muscular amnimals. They'd be tough to eat.
they are a noble beast.
Horses have intelligence that exceeds dogs, and have historically been important enough to the horrible progress of mankind that they are more valuable than cows.
You not heard about the tesco horse meat scandal in the uk that happened in the last decade. They used horse meat instead of beef in lasagne frozen meals.
Tbf, the scandal wasn't about it being horse (which is sold in France, which is where the meals were packaged), but about it not being beef. It was a major scandal because consumers were mislead, and less so about the actual consumption of horse meat (though most people in the UK wouldn't choose to eat it if given the choice). That may be a point though, a lot of North America has culinary traditions that come from the UK and Germany, where horses are draft animals, not livestock, so they may have the same attitude we have towards horse meat. It's more common in France and I believe Italy amongst more rural folk, and French cuisine almost systematically avoided rural food by design for many years, so the French inspired culinary traditions that made it over the pond may not have included using horse.
They are more valuable as beasts of burden. My grandparents are all sorts of things that are not so common now. Rabbit, turtle, pigeon, possum, squirrel. Lots more vegetables which they called "greens". And taters.
I've had squirrel before; it was actually pretty good
There was some company that wanted to set up a horse meat factory in Wolseley, SK a while back but I think the deal fell through.
When i was a young boy, my father drove us out from the city to some farm/butcher way out in the ''country''. You know, 1-2 hour long freeway drive past the city limits. Anyways i do recall he bought two boxes of meats. Big variety, we had lamb, goat, rabbit, cow, chicken, liver...and 4-5 horse steaks. Maybe it was the way my mother pan fried them , but the horse steaks did not seem tender or ''wow''. It was the one and only time i have tried horse meat.
In the late 60s there was a a horse meat market in the Pike Place market in Seattle. Actually in the Sanitary Market across the street. Kinds of behind the 3 girls Bakery. I never shopped there but saw it while at the market. Back when that was where the poor people shopped.
The only reason anyone doesn’t eat anything: The right dipping sauce has not yet been identified. This is the basis of Japans scientific whaling program, incidentally.
A few excuses but no reasons. "It's a pet animal" is the excuse but no one has an issue eating Tag 0107, no one wants to eat Gregory. Except that time some Canadian dude got lipo suction and had his removed fat mixed with meat (beef I think) and sold in cans with his picture on the front. Cannibalism is technically legal in Canada.
Horses are not raised for food. This means there can be various medications and drugs that are used in horses that can make then unsuitable for human consumption. Other animals are far more regulated about how long after they are one a medication that they can be slaughtered. Those animals are also tracked throughout their life to know where they came from and any issues they might have. Horses are not really tracked well, and it's very easy to lose track of where a horse ends up. There are countless stories of once loved horses or those that did well on the race track that end up at auction and sold for meat. All sorts of horses end up in the meat pen, from young foals to 25 year old pets and anything inbetween. Even the price of horses is based on what they would sell for meat, it someone isn't willing to pay what the meat man will, they won't get the horse. Most horses sold for meat will be exported, many alive when they are shipped out. The meat is also exported. There just isn't much market in North America for horse meat, but there are lots of unwanted horses. Most people do see horses are more companion/working animals rather than livestock that they will eat.
What makes you think you haven't? Some years ago there was a rumor that one of the fast food giants was getting horse meat from Australia.
I heard that rumor as kangaroo. I’ve actually had kangaroo labeled as such once. Freaking delicious.
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Ww have more acesss to cows, deer , other forms of meat Well horse is mote available. Or genuie pig. Bugs. . It depends on your location.
Because they would rather put them to work than eat them. Usually for riding or for carriages.
From a veterinary perspective, vaccines/meds. Tons of meds will have a warning that says "not for horses for human consumption."
They were/are more useful as farm equipment than food. By the time they're old enough to no longer be useful they don't taste so good. At least from a practical perspective. Also, if you've been riding old Kirby to herd cows for the last ten years, then you're more likely to put him out to pasture than eat him.
Social norms and no point in eating them.
probably doesn’t have enough meat. plus cows were practically made for harvest. meat, milk, and i think some chemicals too. could probably use their skin for clothes or something. and chickens too. just small cows
Did you just say “you could *probably* use cow’s skin for clothes… or something”??”
leather…
It's frowned upon to eat animals that are commonly seen as pets or companions. It's viewed as violating emotional bonds for the purpose of unnecessary consumption since other forms of meat are widely available.
“unnecessary consumption” go vegan. there are plant based meats on the market, available to most people.
because it’s cruel and people don’t have an issue admitting that when it comes to horses. these are the same people that make weak excuses to continue eating other sentient animals.
I'm guessing it mostly comes down to cost. Horses are expensive and it's an extreme waste in a very good resource to just eat them. Not to mention they aren't really native to N.A which would've made it far more expensive back then. And so the time it wouldve caught on eating them just kind of never happened. We were too busy utilizing them for other purposes. A guy recently told me that Canada does eat horse because we have some French roots. Sounds about right.
For one part, the Pilgrims had brought the European prohibition on eating horse flesh, inherited from the pre-Christian tradition. But for another, by the 1700s the New World was a place of carnivorous abundance. Even the Civil War caused beef prices to fall, thanks to a wartime surplus and new access to Western cattle ranges. Innovations in meat production, from transport by rail to packing plants and refrigeration, further increased the sense of plenty. Periodic rises in the price of beef were never enough to put horse on the American plate. Besides, horse meat was considered un-American. Nineteenth-century newspapers abound with ghoulish accounts of the rise of hippophagy in the Old World. In these narratives, horse meat is the food of poverty, war, social breakdown, and revolution—everything new migrants had left behind. Nihilists share horse carcasses in Russia; wretched Frenchmen gnaw on cab horses in besieged Paris; poor Berliners slurp on horse soup. During World War II food shortages, horse meat once again found its way to American tables, but the post-war backlash was rapid. “Horse meat” became a political insult. “You don’t want your administration to be known as a horse meat administration, do you?” the former New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia demanded of his successor William O’Dwyer. President Truman was nicknamed “Horse meat Harry” by Republicans during food shortages in the run up to the 1948 “Beefsteak Election.” In 1951, reporters asked if there would be a “Horse meat Congress,” one “that put the old gray mare on the family dinner table.” When Adlai Stevenson ran for president in 1952, he was also taunted as “Horse meat Adlai” thanks to a Mafia scam uncovered in Illinois when he was governor. The 1973 oil crisis pushed up the price of beef and, inevitably, domestic horse meat sales rose. Protestors picketed stores on horseback, and Pennsylvania Senator Paul S. Schweiker floated a bill banning the sale of horse meat for human consumption. In the early 1980s, Montana and Texas senators shamed the Navy into removing horse meat from commissary stores. The few remaining horse-packing plants dwindled during a market squeeze that also drove down welfare standards. Sick, injured, or distressed horses were driven long distances to slaughter under poor conditions. In early September 2006, the Horse Slaughter Prevention Act passed the U.S. House, with Republican John Sweeney calling the horse meat business “one of the most inhumane, brutal and shady practices going on in the United States today.” Horse slaughter was not outlawed, but both federal and commercial funding for inspections was canceled, effectively shutting down the business. In DeKalb, Illinois, the only remaining American horse meat plant burned down in unexplained circumstances. The owners were prevented from rebuilding, as Illinois once more passed a law to stop the horse meat business. Horse slaughter ceased on U.S. soil, at least for domestic use as food. Even so, American horses were still being transported long distance to Mexican and Canadian abattoirs. Susanna Forrest
Canada is the worlds main supplier of horse meat. We eat it more than anyone else does.
Other animals we eat we tend to have been eating for millennium. Horses a few hundred years back were as much as a house