Horse harvested for meat in Florida

[WVBaker]

https://www.foxnews.com/us/local-sh...ers-after-horse-harvested-for-meat-in-florida

I can say I've never eaten horse meat, at least knowingly, however, some consider it a delicacy.

 

[AwayWeGo]

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-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 

[bbodb1]

Savages.

 

[CanuckTravlr]

Savages.

If that comment is in reference to the thieves, I agree, but if it is in reference to the eating of horse meat, then I find it a little harsh.

Prior to WWII horse meat was not uncommon as a less expensive alternative to beef for many people. Many horses were used to tow farm machinery and cargo wagons, and this continued to some degree even into the mid-1950s. When they died or got to the end of their useful lives, they were often slaughtered. Something had to be done with the bodies. It was just part of the accepted life cycle.

The hooves generally went to the glue factories, the hides were turned into leather goods and the hair of the mane and tail were used to make horse hair products. Little went to waste. These were not pets, but working animals in most cases. Just as the ox and the dairy cattle were used for various products at the end of their service, so were horses.

I have eaten many different types of meat over the years, including beef, pork, chicken, turkey, pheasant, bison, venison, moose and even ostrich. I have also had horse meat once in my life that I remember.

It was in the late 50s and we were stationed on Prince Edward Island. A local farmer, who was an acquaintance of my father, had put down one of his horses and gave some of the meat to us. I remember it as somewhat like a tougher cut of beef, maybe a slightly stronger flavour, but not unpleasant, and definitely stringier than modern beef. I remember being curious, but certainly not shocked.

We forget with our modern supermarkets and complex distribution systems, like air transport, superhighways and refrigerated transport trucks, that at one time our food tended to be much more locally sourced. Which made choices, especially in colder climates in winter, much less abundant than today. You made use of what was available. No waste and conspicuous consumption like we have today!

 

[Passepartout]

In one of my earlier incarnations, I worked in a zoo. We bought horsemeat from a supplier in Canada to feed our carnivores. Cougars, lions, etc. can go through a lot of meat, and there just isn't 'Purina Lion Chow'. The meat was coated with charcoal to make it unappetizing and easily identifiable to humans, and the packaging said 'Not For Human Consumption'.

That said, horses are not generally raised as a food source- unlike cattle. The horses that go to slaughter are generally old and have lived their lives being productive in other ways- again unlike cattle- that are raised specifically to produce meat- or milk. The cattle we eat are typically just 2-3 years old, and are in their prime. Old cows- and non-productive dairy cattle go into ground meat products, dog food, bone broth, etc.

Jim

 

[CanuckTravlr]

In one of my earlier incarnations, I worked in a zoo. We bought horsemeat from a supplier in Canada to feed our carnivores. Cougars, lions, etc. can go through a lot of meat, and there just isn't 'Purina Lion Chow'. The meat was coated with charcoal to make it unappetizing and easily identifiable to humans, and the packaging said 'Not For Human Consumption'.

That said, horses are not generally raised as a food source- unlike cattle. The horses that go to slaughter are generally old and have lived their lives being productive in other ways- again unlike cattle- that are raised specifically to produce meat- or milk. The cattle we eat are typically just 2-3 years old, and are in their prime. Old cows- and non-productive dairy cattle go into ground meat products, dog food, bone broth, etc.

Jim

I am certainly not talking about horse meat being raised for human consumption today. Generally there are too few of them to really make an industry of them in any case. And we are certainly not condoning people stealing other people's horses to sell them off as a food source, whether for human or animal consumption, or any other reason.

My comments were related to the situation 70 to 100 years ago or more. Prior to WWII, food regulations were far less developed than they are today. Things have changed. Horses were everywhere. And while we may not raise dairy cattle or horses for human consumption today, instead relegating them to other purposes, that was not always the case. In the past, even if they were not raised for human consumption, they were often a local source of meat, particularly in more remote rural areas.

There was also no interstate system until the 1950s, so there was no fast and easy way to transport, let alone refrigerate food products over long distances, other than by railroad or ship. So much more food was sourced locally or regionally. Even in the 1960s, I can remember when many fruits and vegetables, that today we take for granted, were expensive and considered a treat here in Canada in the wintertime. We relied much more on root vegetables that last longer in storage, than we do today. And the slaughter houses were also more local. There were none of the big behemoth meat processing factories that today ship not only all over the continent, but even internationally.

 

[Jan M.]

We live in southeast Florida and in Florida there are many people from the islands, Central and South America who eat things we don't. Horse meat, goat parts, chicken feet. Iguana meat is considered a delicacy by some and those ugly Muscovy ducks are edible too if you get the younger ones.

We don't eat a lot of things people used to eat when I was younger like tripe, chitterlings, kidneys, pigs feet, cow's tongue. Back then chicken wings weren't a thing yet and not something you bought unless you couldn't afford even chicken legs.

In the 70's I moved to Erie, PA and there was a store called Erie County Farms. Not your typical grocery store; meats, fruits and vegetables mostly. The fruits and vegetables were set out on the floor in the boxes and baskets they came in and they cut the meat at the store. The prices were better than you could find anywhere else and lower income families could make their food stamps and money really stretch by shopping there. The first time I went there I saw people loading their carts up with those things that I couldn't even imagine eating. When I got home I called my Dad who had been a meat cutter and told him about what I'd seen people buying. My Dad got a good laugh and having grown up during the Depression was proud that his child grew up not knowing what it was like to eat those things.